The Congress has decided to convene the meeting of the AICC on November 2 to elect members of the party's highest decision-making body, the CWC.
The AICC meeting has been convened about a month before the plenary session of the party, which will coincide with the completion of 125 years of the Congress. It is, however, a shift from the normal practice to elect the CWC members at the AICC meeting, as on all earlier occasions the exercise used to done during plenary sessions.
Announcing the decision of holding a one-day AICC meeting, party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said elections for 11 CWC members would take place on November 2.
The CWC has 25 members in which the PM and the Congress president are ex-officio members. "When the same person is the Congress president as well as PM, 12 of the rest 24 members are elected and 12 are nominated. But since this time the Prime Minister and the Congress president are separate persons and 23 other members have to be brought in, 11 will be elected and 12 will be nominated," Mr Dwivedi said.
This will be the first major party meet after Mrs Sonia Gandhi's recent re-election as the Congress chief for the fourth term. So far, no contest has been witnessed for the CWC since Mrs Gandhi took over as party chief way back in April 1998.