Today, CWC elections haven’t been held for 20 years. Indian National Congress party has rejected Nehru’s principles and forgotten that in democracies parties elect their leader.

When Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India from 15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964 the Indian National Congress was presided by many other talented leaders. Here is a list of Congress Party Presidents from 1947 till 1964.

1947: J. B. Kripalani
1948 & 49: Pattabhi Sitaraimayya
1950: Purushottam Das Tandon
1951 & 52, 1953, 1954, Jawaharlal Nehru
1955,1956, 1957, 1958, 1959: U. N. Dhebar
1959: Indira Gandhi
1960,1961, 1962 & 1963: Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
1964: K. Kamaraj

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Indian_National_Congress

Unlike the early days when the party used to have internal elections every year enabling smooth change of leadership, in the recent past, however, the party executives are being chosen by a process akin to nomination. In a healthy democracy it is not perceived well where a member of single family is chosen as the Party president for decades.

Through this petition, we request the members of Congress Working Committee, and AICC to hold internal elections and follow the simple principles of democracy. Democracy is one of the values of the Congress party as noted in the party website. https://www.inc.in/en/our-values

We suggest that there should be elections to the post of Congress president and the CWC which must be held under an independent non-partisan body of eminent citizens to ensure a foolproof process. We need the process to encourage transparent elections wherein anybody in the Congress party can contest and become party president.

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Thank you.

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Watch a video from the public domain courtesy #TheDeshBhakt

History of Congress Elections: Can a democratic Party President save INC from the Gandhi problem?

For some viewpoints from Congress Leaders: 

How to rejuvenate Congress: Leadership vacuum is the elephant in the room. Act now to stop the slide and save the party​

If Congress carries on like this, others may go Scindia way : Tharoor​

Sandeep Dikshit bats for a non-Gandhi Congress chief​

Now Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit speaks up on leadership: ‘Who will bell the cat?’​

We Need To 'Ruthlessly' Reinvent Congress, Our Arrogance Has To Go: Jairam Ramesh