Congress mulls changes in its constitution: From tougher rules for top post aspirants to CWC expansion

Among the two proposed amendments that may significantly affect future challenges to the leadership is one that will make it mandatory for aspirants to the post of party president to get 100 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates to propose their names. The current requirement is 10 delegates.

When he challenged Mallikarjun Kharge for the Congress presidency last year, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor’s name was proposed by 60 delegates. Getting the backing of 100 delegates could be a big ask for aspiring candidates, especially non-establishment ones.

The second amendment perhaps had the demands of the G23 group of party dissidents in mind. The G23 leaders had demanded CWC elections, the revival of the Parliamentary Board mechanism for collective decision-making, and an elected central election committee (CEC) that finalises the party’s poll candidates.

The G23’s demand for an elected CEC was well thought out, as according to the party’s constitution, the CEC “shall be set up consisting of members of the Parliamentary Board, and nine other members elected by the AICC”. So, the party would have been forced to set up a Parliamentary Board first, “consisting of the Congress president and nine other members, one of whom will be the leader of the Congress in Parliament.”

The proposed changes say the CWC will “set up a Central Election Committee (CEC) comprising 12 members to be appointed by the CWC, including chairperson of the Congress in Parliament and leaders of Congress Party in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.”

In fact, the proposal is to delete altogether the provision that says the CEC will be set up consisting of members of the Parliamentary Board and nine other members elected by AICC. In effect, it means the party has delinked CEC from the Parliamentary Board. And even if a Parliamentary Board is set up, its members need not necessarily be members of the CEC and the candidate selection process.

Another amendment proposed changes the composition of the Parliamentary Board itself. The Congress constitution says “the Working Committee shall set up a Parliamentary Board consisting of the Congress President and nine other members, one of whom will be the leader of the Congress Party in Parliament, with the Congress President as the Chairman”.

The proposed amendment says the body will “comprise of the Congress President, the Congress Prime Minister, the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary party in Parliament and 5 other members.”

Among other changes the party announced are increasing the strength of the CWC to 35; reserving half the seats in CWC for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), minorities, women, and the youth under the age of 50; addition of third gender in its membership form; and giving members the freedom to specify names of mother or spouse — and not necessarily that of father — in membership data.

What aroused much curiosity was the proposal to rephrase a provision that currently stipulates every member must abstain from “alcoholic drinks”. The constitution says every member must fulfil eight conditions and make a signed declaration to that effect in the membership form. One of the conditions earlier was, “He/She abstains from alcoholic drinks and intoxicant drugs.”

The provision is set to be amended to: “He/She abstains from use of psychotropic substances, prohibited drugs and intoxicants.” The word alcohol has been dropped from the proposed amendment.

Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “We have recognised the realities that many other forms of intoxicants are prevalent now in our society…we have expanded the clause further. We have said psychotropic substances, prohibited drugs and intoxicants … so we have gone many many steps further.”

He added, “Intoxicants must mean not only alcohol but it may also mean those extreme forms of zarda which cause cancer.” The party has also proposed to include a provision to bar those “convicted for an offence involving a heinous crime or moral turpitude” from becoming members.