Congress president election | Manish Tewari seeks transparency in process

Karti Chidambaram supports Manish Tewari saying every election requires a well defined electoral college

Lok Sabha member and senior Congress leader Manish Tewari on August 31 sharply reacted to the comments made by Madhusudan Mistry regarding the Congress presidential polls.

On Tuesday, Mr. Mistry, who heads the Congress’ Central Election Authority (CEA), had told The Hindu that none should doubt the fairness of the electoral process and asserted that the names of the delegates, who make up the 9,000-strong electoral college of the presidential elections, can be found out from the respective Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) or the State units.

In a series of tweets, Mr. Tewari said the electoral roll should be transparent and publicly available on the party’s website.

“With great respect @MD_Mistry ji How can there be a fair & free election without a publicly available electoral roll ? Essence of a fair & free process is names & addresses of electors must be published on @INCIndia website in a transparent manner,” he said, tagging The Hindu news report.

Mr. Tewari, who is a member of the ginger group called G-23 that has been pushing for internal reforms in the Congress for the past two years, questioned why should anyone visit the PCC offices to find out “who the electors are” and asserted that such things don’t happened even in “a club election”.

“In interests of fairness & transparency I urge your gods self to publish entire list of electors on @INCIndia website. How can someone consider running if he/she does not know who electors are. If someone has to file his/her nomination & gets it proposed by 10 Congresspersons as is requirement, CEA can reject it saying they are not valid electors,” he added.