Congress leader Ghufran-e-Azam moots election for all party posts

Senior Congress leader Ghufran-e-Azam has suggested that elections should be held for all posts in the party organisation, from president to various levels in the districts. "Everyone knows Congress is in doldrums and it can be revived only by holding elections at all levels, including the post of party president," the senior party leader told reporters here today at his residence.

Workers will be associated with the party only after elections are held for all posts, he said. Ghufran said he had written a letter in this regard to party president Sonia Gandhi on July 11 and earlier also, but there was no response. He said whenever he wrote such letters to Gandhi, there was talk of his joining the BJP, which had no substance. "I have been an AICC member for the last 40 years and I will never join the BJP," he asserted.

To a query about his letter, he stated that he was not critical of the party leadership.

Ghufran said he does not think that talking about steps to improve the party's position amounted to criticising anybody. Congress had received a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.