Guwahati. May 18: Opposition Congress in Assam has announced that the party’s organisational elections would be held in four phases – booth, block, district and state Pradesh Congress Committee.
The decision was taken after a marathon meeting of the party chaired by All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Assam, Jitendra Singh here on Tuesday.
Informing mediapersons here, Assam PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah said two members would be elected from one polling station at the booth level.
“At the block level, three members would be elected as president, vice-president and treasurer. Thereafter, eight representatives would be elected – one to the state PCC, one as block president while six members would be elected to the districts. Of the 300 elected APCC members, one will be elected as APCC president, one as vice-president and one as treasurer,” Borah said.
“Subsequently, APCC members will elect 50 among them as AICC members who will be eligible to vote in the elections for the AICC president,” he said.
Borah said the elections would be held soon and it was finalised in the meeting how and when the party’s office-bearers would accompany the district returning officers from Odisha, West Bengal and Meghalaya to the booths and blocks.
“The meeting has finalised the proceedings for the polls and barring issues such as floods and communication breakdown, the elections would be held on time,” he said.
Meanwhile, amid speculations in a section of the media about dissidence in the state Congress, AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam, Singh ruled out any change in the state Congress leadership, while categorically stating that Bhupen Kumar Borah would remain as the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president.
Reacting to queries by mediapersons late Tuesday evening, Singh, who is on a two-day visit to Assam, said, “Bhupen Borah is the president of APCC and will continue to remain as the state PCC chief.”
It may be mentioned that some Congress MLAs, including deputy CLP leader Rakibul Hussain, had a closed-door meeting at a time when Borah and a few others were in Udaipur (Rajasthan) to attend AICC’s “Chintan Shivir”.
Later some of the MLAs said that the meeting was held to find out new ways to strengthen the party even as some had indirectly held the state PCC president accountable for not consulting or taking MLAs into confidence while selecting district presidents.
Eight district presidents were appointed by the state Congress recently.
The PCC president, on the other hand, said that there could be allegations and counter allegations against any one, let alone the party chief.
“The key objective of the party here is to strengthen the party’s organisational base and play its role as the principal Opposition by pointing out what the government needs to do for the people,” Borah said.