Party president should be allowed to take decisions: Prithviraj Chavan

'For a vibrant Congress all electoral processes need to be put in place. Kharge should be allowed to find his own feet and permitted to take his own decisions on who should contest election'

This is what former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan says about the new Congress chief, Mallikarjun Kharge, as discussion begins about whether Kharge will be his own man or a proxy for the Gandhi family. Edited excerpts from an interview to Aditi Phadnis

The Congress has an elected president. What are your expectations from him?
 

The fact that the Congress has held election after a very long time is itself a major achievement, because I feel that in a democracy like ours, political parties should also be structured on the principles of democracy, which has not happened -- in other parties not at all, and the Congress has also not done it in a long time. After all, if you’re going to call Narendra Modi an emerging dictator, or say that India is going through an undeclared Emergency, the claims cannot be made by a party that is not democratically constructed. Therefore, holding election was an important landmark in the recent history of the Congress.

But all office-bearers in the party are not elected ones …

That is true. The president’s election is one part. There are other positions that are to be filled by election: The Congress Working Committee (CWC); within the CWC a parliamentary board; and the parliamentary board plus some elected members who form the election committee.

Going down, we have state presidents (of Pradesh Congress Committees, or PCCs) and district presidents. My expectation now is that the Congress will continue the process. After the electoral college for holding the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session is in place, the AICC plenary will be called and the CWC election will be held. After that the president will nominate 11 other people. The election of CPP (Congress parliamentary party) chairperson will also have to be held, followed by that of the parliamentary board, which takes day-to-day decisions.

For a vibrant Congress all these electoral processes need to be put in place. Kharge should be allowed to find his own feet and permitted to take his own decisions on who should contest election.

Right now the party is working with people who have been nominated over the past two decades. The size of the CWC has grown because there are too many special invitees. There’s no parliamentary board at all.

The biggest challenge for the Congress president will be holding as many party elections as required —  preferably all of them.

Elections impart vibrancy to an organisation. The nomination culture cost us elections we should have won. Hopefully that will change now. Of course, this is easier said than done. For nominated people giving up their positions is not going to be easy. There will be resentment and obstruction will be created in carrying it through. But this will happen if approved by Sonia Gandhi, who, I believe, is inherently democratic and was not allowed to hold election for several reasons, including threats of a split in the party. She has allowed this election to happen: She need not have. The Congress will emerge much stronger through the election process. The challenge is whether that will be permitted to happen.

You’re still using words like “allow” and “permit” when it comes to holding election ... With an elected president in place, what’s the hitch in holding election to every post in the party?

Let’s look at the history of the Congress in the past quarter century. It had been a party that was tightly controlled by one person: Sonia Gandhi and her close set of advisors. From that to announce one fine morning that there will be election at all levels … it’s not easy. Practically speaking there is a set of people who are running the AICC. For them to give up their positions, telling them: “thank you very much, now you can go” … it doesn’t happen like that. I think it will be give and take. Some power will have to be ceded by people who are currently in place. Other people, preferably through an election process, will come in.

The past non-Gandhi presidents of the Congress have succeeded in establishing their authority only if they’ve won elections for the party. If they’ve lost elections, they’ve lost authority. Will Mallikarjun Kharge be considered the person who will deliver electoral results? Or will Rahul Gandhi be considered that person?

That’s the elephant in the room. The Congress has a history of a “leader” or a “prime minister”, and a Congress president. At times, these two positions have been occupied by two different persons. A recent example is 2004-14, when the leader of the House and the prime minister was Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi was president. There have been other examples. This has been the structure in the Congress. Can we go back to that structure?

Rahul Gandhi is the leader. Through his Bharat Jodo Yatra he is contacting the people. Mr Kharge is going to be looking at administration and restructuring the election campaign in states. It is not necessary that the president of the Congress alone should also become the leader or the prime ministerial candidate automatically. It is joint responsibility.

You see what happens when one individual becomes very strong  — in Russia or in China.