In an effort to speed up the internal polls, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the composition of the Central Organisational Election Authority (CEA).
Mullappally Ramachandran was elected as the chairman of the CEA. Bhubaneshwar Kalita and Madhusudan Mistry were appointed as members of the CEA.
As per a Congress notification, Madhusudan Mistry, AICC General Secretary, will not hold any organisational post as per party constitution.
MP Shamsher Singh Dullo, Ex-MP Ashk Ali Tak and MP Biren Singh Ekti were appointed as the advisory committee members of the CEA.
Earlier, the grand old party has asked all state units to wind up the ongoing membership drive by May 15.
“I would like to remind you that under no circumstances the date of enrolment and submission of membership forms will be extended beyond May 15,” Congress general secretary, Janardan Dwivedi, said in his April 13 letter to state chiefs and party office-bearers across the country.
Earlier, the Election Commission had turned down a request by the Congress for a year’s extension and asked it to complete the formality by the end of June. For which, the main opposition party replied that it will be able to complete the process only by December 2017.
After exchanges of letters, the EC had finally accepted the grand old party’s request seeking extension of deadline by December 31 and asked the party to submit its list of new office-bearers by January 2018.
