Cong Softens Stand On Poll Deadline

The Congress decided yesterday to back down from a confrontation with the Election Commission over the deadline for completion of its organisational elections. The party is now planning to complete the process by June 15. A request in tandem from the Janata Dal to the Election Commission for an extention till June 15 boosted their hopes.

A delegation of Congress leaders met Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill and asked him to give the party a few days beyond the Commissions May 31 deadline but assured him they would not take as long as mid-July, as they had decided a couple of days earlier.

The Congress delegation, comprising general secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad and Oscar Fernandes and Congress Working Committee member Pranab Mukherjee, left a meeting of the CWC to meet Gill. They returned to report to the CWC that Gill had told them he would let them know after consulting the other two commissioners. A reply is expected to be conveyed to the party today.

The partys plea was strengthened by the Janata Dal, which yesterday joined the Congress to ask the commission for more time. The Dal also asked for time till June 15, the deadline the Congress now wants. The Commission had asked the Dal to complete organisational elections by May 20.

Dal President Laloo Prasad and working president Sharad Yadav have developed a cosy relationship with Congress President Sitaram Kesri over the past few months. Both sides even talk of an electoral alliance when general elections are next held.

Sharad Yadav led a Dal delegation to meet Gill yesterday and apprised him of the progress made by the Dal in conducting its organisational elections.

Dal general secretary PK Samantray, who was part of the delegation, said that the party asked for more time because of political crisis at the national level in early April and the death of senior Dal leader Biju Patnaik.

He said the Dal had already completed organisational elections in 20 of the 25 states and in rest of the states elections would be held before May 20, the time stipulated by the Commission.

Because of all the problems we could not anticipate, we will not be able to complete the election of party president before May 20. Hence we asked for some more time, Samantray said.

He said that party president Laloo Prasad Yadav was consulted about the move. How can we take important decisions without consulting our party president, he added.