Organisation polls can be only completed by December: Congress to EC

The Congress, which has been given an ultimatum by the Election Commission to complete its organisational polls by June-end, told the panel panel that this could only be done by December 2017.

"On a jurisdictional basis, we do not believe that the Elections Commission can kind of fix a date for any political party, not only us.

"We are fully ready and willing to have it but on a deferment after we have got all the lists in order," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told media persons.

He further said: "It is approximately six months more when (internal polls) will be done."

Congress is believed to have questioned the deadline fixed by EC and also said that it is against the resolution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

Singhvi also said Congress was the first party to have intra-party elections on a massive scale down to the district and tehsil level.

"We had those elections despite much opposition even at the lower levels and different levels of our own party. (Vice PresidentO Rahul Gandhi spearheaded that movement. We also had a very high-powered independent election commission kind of body of three retired CECs overseeing them," he said.

Singhvi also said the party also conducted elections for its President's post. "Other parties have been much more belated than us doing this. We are not cheery or hesitant in any manner doing it.

"Practical problem is that these things depend on updated membership list to have a proper real election. It is not always possible with so many state and central elections going on to keep those lists updated in a real sense," he added.

"All that we have asked is for a deferment of sometime so that those can be updated and you can have meaningful election," he said.

--IANS

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