Open Forum
New
Delhi, 22 August 2019
Party Presidentship
ELECTION BY SELECTION
By Dr S. Saraswathi
(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)
The importance of party leadership position
must have been realised by every citizen watching the process of finding the
next Congress President after the resignation of Rahul Gandhi. This 150 year-old party has of course got a
written Constitution, rules and procedure governing organization and
functioning of the party. It has also got conventions, traditions, and
practices in accordance with and in spite of the written law.
The situation is in many respects similar in
many political parties. The internal matters of the Congress are naturally more
widely discussed and criticised than of other parties because of people’s high
expectations from the national party that is oldest by age and which has ruled
the country for the longest period after independence.
Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress President
on this July 3, and his mother and previous President, Sonia Gandhi was
appointed as Interim President on 10 August. The intervening period was spent
in persuading the outgoing President to change his decision and also in finding
a suitable successor to the post. Top Congress leaders met on 9 August with the
State unit chiefs, leaders of state legislature parties, and general
secretaries when the outgoing president told them, according to some press
reports, that a new party chief would be appointed in a few days after wider consultations.
A senior leader is reported to have said that
the CWC should immediately appoint an interim president and then hold election
for the post. In his words, “a leader elected by workers will be empowered and
have more credibility”. At the same time, some names were floated for
appointment.
The AICC is the central decision-making body
of the Congress which is composed of elected members of State-level Pradesh
Congress Committees, which have members elected or nominated from district and panchayat-level
party units. Members of the AICC and Pradesh Congress Committees elect the
party president and members of the CWC, according to party Constitution.
It is reported that there is no unanimity
within the Congress to leave the selection of next Party President in the hands
of 53 members of the CWC comprising 24 members, 19 permanent invitees, and 10
special invitees. There was even a suggestion to disband the CWC and invite over
10,000 PCC delegates to join the process of election of the party President.
Informal consultations with the State units do not satisfy them as equivalent
to direct election.
Evidently, there were internal differences
over the method of selection of the chief – most probably between election as
per the party constitution and appointment by power holders after informal
consultations – a controversy between selection by election or election by selection!
As per CWC’s decision, Sonia Gandhi will
presently hold the post of president till the AICC elections are held to select
a full-time president.
Congress Party’s long stay as the ruling
party seems to have led to a type of government-party relationship not found in
other parties that have not tasted fully governmental power. The relationship
has reshaped the role of party leadership and various functionaries.
2004 election provided Congress-led coalition
with a mandate to govern after a gap of eight years, and also afforded the
party an opportunity and a reason to revitalise and renew the role of the
Congress Party in determining the government-party relationship. The mandate to
govern achieved by the Congress as leader of the coalition of parties was not
just a return to power of the old guards, but a significant stage in
strengthening its role in the government. The focus of the insiders as well as
outsiders was on the party as much as on the government during 2004-14. It was
reversal of the party position in the 1950s and 1960s when the government was
supreme and the party less visible.
Noteworthy in this political change is the
formal bifurcation of leadership in government and leadership of the party
breaking the practice set by Indira Gandhi in 1978 to unite the two leadership
positions in the same hands. Rajiv Gandhi and P.V.Narasimha Rao also held dual
posts.
This development was partly due to the
decline of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to be the Prime Minister in 2004 despite being
instrumental in the victory of the party against a very popular BJP Prime Minister
Vajpayee and preference to head a
pre-poll and post-poll alliance of multiple parties.
Significantly, the bifurcation resulted in
the elevation of the Party President as the most important person, in fact more
than the Prime Minister from the party who had to manage a complex coalition
amidst pressures from party members, alliance partners, party coordination committees,
the National Advisory Council, and commitment to the National Common Minimum
Programme and also face parliamentary opposition.
No wonder, Party President acquired enormous
power and influence and became the focus of everyone from top to bottom in the
party and in the government. The post of the President thus became worth aspiring
for especially when out of power when there is no governmental power in the
hands of the Congress to compete.
Experience of many regional parties confirms
that successful leaders are those who capture the party leadership from the
elevation of Karunanidhi in 1969 to Jayalalitha in 1987 and Akhilesh Yadav in
2012.
For registration of political parties, the
Election Commission requires certain documents like the organisational
structure and powers and functions of the organs of the party, method of
appointment of various office-bearers of the party, the process of their
election, etc. There is no express requirement regarding internal democratic
regulations of parties which suits the actual functioning of parties.
In the BJP, party president should be a party
member for at least 15 years. He/she is nominally elected by an electoral
college composed of members drawn from party’s national and State councils. In
practice, however, a consensus choice of senior party members has worked well.
Presidentship is a three-year term and cannot extend to more than two
consecutive terms. The president does not normally hold a post in the
government and Amit Shah’s current two posts is said to be a temporary
arrangement in view of some State elections due in a few months. There has not
been so far any case of pre-fixing the President.
With no constitutional restriction on the
length of the term, the Congress was able to run its show with the same
president for 19 years from 1998 to 2017. The tenure of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv
Gandhi lasted six years each. Long tenure of the same person in any organisation
is reason enough to weaken the democratic thinking of the organisation leading
to some kind of lethargy in conducting party elections. Whether this will
forever suit new and younger elements coming with fresh ideas and enthusiasm or
even veterans to resign to the fate of playing second fiddle to top leadership remains
to be seen particularly when the party is going through adverse fortune.
In a national party like the Indian National
Congress, leadership election cannot be deemed an internal party matter that
does not concern ordinary citizens. In the final election or selection of the
leader lies the future of the party.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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