Congress will sit in opposition for 50 years if internal elections are not held: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has again raised his voice for internal party organizational elections. He has said that if Congress party wants to sit in the opposition for the next 50 years then there is no need for party elections. Ghulam Nabi Azad is the also leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

In a 27 minute video shared on his official Facebook page, Azad said that this should have happened 10-15 years ago. 'For the last many decades, we do not have elected bodies at the party. Now we are losing elections after elections, and if we have to come back we need to strengthen our party. Holding elections is one way of doing that.'

Ghulam Nabi Azad's term as leader of opposition ends in February 2021. A party veteran from the Sanjay Gandhi era, Azad led Congress successfully in the 2002 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.

Azad claimed that those who fear losing elections are holding it back, these CWC members get their posts via 'nominations', and want to continue like that.

Those office-bearers or state unit presidents or block district presidents who attack our proposal know that they will be nowhere when elections happen. Whoever is genuinely invested in the Congress will welcome the letter. State, district and block president of the party should be elected by the party workers,” he said.

Questioning about those who are opposing the idea of party elections Ghulam Nabi Azad said that an election has the benefit that when you fight elections, at least your party is 51 percent behind you. Right now, the person who becomes president might not even have one percent support. If CWC members are elected then they cannot be removed.

The letter written to Sonia Gandhi by 23 Congress, leaders including MPs and former ministers, called for sweeping reforms, fair internal elections, collective decision-making, and full-time party chief.

It was reported that during the CWC meeting on Monday, senior leaders took on the letter writers, including Azad, asking them what their real intention was in writing the note. They were asked why they couldn’t discuss this at party meetings. When they replied that meetings were not held, immediately a list of the number of meetings called by Sonia Gandhi was readout.

However, Sonia Gandhi reportedly reached out to Azad after the meeting and assured him that his concerns will be addressed.