Congress mulls postponement of internal party polls

The Congress is mulling postponing its internal organisational elections in poll-bound states after local leaders requested their postponement.

The requests have mainly come from Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Mizoram, party sources said.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will decide on the issue tomorrow at a meeting of party general secretaries of election going states he has convened tomorrow.

Officials of the Congress Election Authority will also be present at the meeting.

A vociferous demand for postponing internal party polls until after state polls has come from Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who met AICC general secretary for the state Ambika Soni and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel this evening.

Also present were Himachal Pradesh Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu who has been against postponing organisational elections.

The issue has become a bone of contention between Virbhadra and Sukhu, with the two leaders attacking each other publicly in the recent past.

Soni and Patel are learnt to have told the warring leaders to hold their horses and work in unison and also assured them of resolution of the organisational polls issue which was discussed today.

Sources said a broad agreement was reached today on postponing internal Congress elections but a final call will be taken at a meeting which Rahul Gandhi has called tomorrow.

Congress had announced its internal poll schedule recently. As per the schedule, membership lists should have been ready by May 30.

Congress' internal polls were due in 2015 after which the party has been on an extended deadline from the Election Commission.

The EC has given time upto December 31, 2017, to the party to conclude the process.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)