Cong Plenary Session: Steering Committee meet today, Gandhis might skip it

Ahead of the Congress plenary session in Chhattisgarh, speculations remain on whether there will be elections for the Congress Working Committee as there was to elect the party's president last year

Ahead of the Congress plenary session in Chhattisgarh, speculations remain on whether there will be elections for the Congress Working Committee as there was to elect the party's national president last year.

The 85th plenary session of the Congress party will begin on Friday in Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

A meeting of the steering committee will be held on Friday morning to decide the agenda of the plenary session. The meeting will also decide whether the elections for the Congress Working Committee are to be held or not.

According to sources, most of the party leaders are not in favour of holding the elections and, instead, want the party president to be vested with the right to nominate members of the Congress Working Committee.

However, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been a strong advocate for elections.

If there are no elections, 23 of the 25 CWC members will be nominated by the Congress president.

The Congress president and the leader of the party in Parliament get ex-officio membership of the CWC.

As per the party constitution, of the remaining 23 members, 12 are to be elected and 11 nominated. So, the elections, if held, will be for 12 CWC members.

However, if the proposal to nominate 11 CWC members is passed, the remaining 12 members will also be nominated by the president.

According to sources, there are speculations that the Gandhi family might stay away from the steering committee meeting so that they are not blamed if it decides not to hold the CWC elections.

Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are likely to reach Raipur for the plenary on Friday afternoon.