AICC to meet tomorrow in shadow of Adarsh scam, Commonwealth mess

 A meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) is being held in the capital tomorrow in the shadow of the Adarsh housing scam and the Commonwealth mess which have made the opposition to train their guns on the ruling party and several of its leaders.

The meeting is being held at the Talkatora stadium here and is the first after party chief Sonia Gandhi's recent re-election for a record fourth time.

Although it is the first meeting of the AICC during the party's 125th anniversary, the mood is far from celebratory in the wake of controversies, including the housing scam allegedly involving Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, whose fate is hanging in balance.

Opposition has also been targeting party MP Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games, as also some Union ministers involved in alleged corruption in the organisation of the Games. A high-level probe is already on by former CAG VK Shunglu.

In fact, no one in the party is talking about the meet which the Congress has said would deal with the current political situation.

Incidentally, a Congress plenary is being held before the third week of December and its venue is likely to be either Jaipur or Delhi.

During tomorrow's meeting, election for the all-powerful Congress working committee (CWC) will be held.

The 1,000-odd AICC members constitute the electoral college for the CWC polls. Of the entire CWC, there is a provision for election of 12 and nomination of 11 members.

The Congress president and also parliamentary party leaders of the party are members of the CWC with the party chief heading the key body.

A move authorising Gandhi to nominate the entire CWC is expected to be made at the meet. Party leaders said that a one-line resolution authorising her to nominate the CWC is expected to be moved and passed.

The fact is that nominations rather than election is the order of the day in Congress. Gandhi renominated a dozen odd PCC presidents only last week.

There has been no contest for the CWC since Gandhi took over the reins of the organisation in April 1998.

The last two contests for the CWC were in 1997 at the Kolkata plenary when Sitaram Kesri was the party chief and in April 1992 at the Tirupati plenary when PV Narasimha Rao was at the helm. Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh besides Ahmed Patel and late Jitendra Prasada were the winners then.