Cong extends enrolment drive; likely to push back party polls

Congress will be coming out soon with a revised schedule for its organisational polls amid signals that the election of the next party chief is going to be delayed beyond September.
An indication in that regard was available here tonight as AICC announced an extension of its enrolment drive by one month from May 15 to June 15.
The decision was taken by the Central Election Authority of Congress, headed by senior leader Mullappally Ramachandran, which will shortly announce a revised schedule for the party elections, said Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi.
Amid speculation that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi may be anointed as the next party chief, AICC had on March 26 announced its schedule for organisational elections in which the next Congress President was to be elected by September 30.

A highlight of the earlier schedule was that for the first time, party polls were to be held in two phases, with the first phase covering 18 states and Union Territories and the second involving the rest.
Sonia Gandhi set a record for having the longest tenure at the helm of the oldest political party when she completed 17 years as Congress President on March 14.

She took the top party post in 1998, replacing the late Sitaram Kesri at a time when Congress was faced with a crisis with the BJP in the ascendant.
This time, the organisational polls are being held against the backdrop of the party's worst debacle in Lok Sabha polls last year. It could manage just 44 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections after being in power for a decade.

The talk is growing in the organisation that sooner rather than later Sonia will pass the mantle to her son Rahul, who was made the Congress Vice President in January 2013 at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir.