REPORT

Congress Opposes Poll Ordinance

Ranjan Majumdar, Aslam Sher Khan Join Party NEW DELHI : On a day when the Tamil Maanila Congress and the Puducherry Makkal Congress merged with the Party, the Congress also welcomed back into its fold the former Tripura Chief Minister, Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar, and the former Union Minister, Aslam Sher Khan, on 14 August, 2002. At a press conference where their return to the Congress was formally announced, the two leaders articulated their faith in the leadership of Smt. Sonia Gandhi.

The Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, issued the following press statement on August 27, 2002 :

"The Congress Party attaches great importance to the issue of electoral law reforms in the light of the recent Supreme Court order for disclosure of information by candidates. We are distressed to find that large sections of the media continue to club the Congress Party with other political parties in projecting the impression that all political parties are united in opposing the implementation of the order of the Supreme Court. This erroneous reporting has been further encouraged by the misleading statements issued from time to time by the NDA Government and BJP functionaries.

The Congress Party has clearly articulated its stand in the all-party meeting convened by the Union Law Minister on 2nd August, 2002 as well as in a subsequent letter dated 8th August, 2002 written by senior Congress leaders to the Law Minister.

The Congress Party is fully in concurrence with the orders of the Supreme Court that candidates must disclose all relevant information called for, particularly regarding convictions and charges for offences, assets and bank balances, and liabilities and overdues. The Congress Party believes that such information must be disclosed by all candidates at the time of filing nomination and prior to elections.

The Congress Party is in disagreement only with the directions of the Election Commission vesting Returning Officers with the powers to investigate the authenticity of the information given and to reject nomination papers on grounds of incomplete or false information. The Returning Officer’s responsibility should be limited to simply ensuring that the declaration is made and displayed on the notice board. The establishment of the authenticity or completeness of declarations made by candidates should be the prerogative of the appropriate courts of law. The Congress Party is of the view that if declarations made by a winning candidate are subsequently found to be false or incomplete by an appropriate court of law, the election of such a candidate should become null and void, the seat should be declared vacant and the candidate should be meted the punishment laid down under existing laws for filing a false affidavit.

The Congress Party strongly opposes the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance proposed by the NDA Government as it falls far short of the requirements stated above. We condemn the Central Government’s move to willfully pass an Ordinance that defies (i) the will of a vast majority of the people, (ii) the letter and spirit of the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and (iii) the basic tenets of transparency and accountability in politics."

Secretaries Attached to General Secretaries
Office Bearer	Secretary	Allocation of Work
Shri Motilal Vora	Subodhkant Sahay Parvez Hashmi	Treasurer, AICC, Administration Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal
Smt. Ambika Soni	B.K. Hariprasad Daljit Singh T. Subirami Reddy	C.P.O. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Media Dept.
Smt. Mohsina Kidwai	V. Hanumantha Rao Satyajit Gaekwad Krishna Tirath	Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Assam
Shri Kamal Nath	Chandan Bagchi Kum. Selja K.K. Sharma	Delhi, Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat,
Shri Oscar Fernandes	. . Shiv Lal Balmiki Iqbal Singh G.K. Vasan	AICC Meetings & Sessions, CWC, Organisational Election Work Departments & Cell Bihar, Jharkhand,
Shri Vayalar Ravi	Mirza Irshad Baig Maj. Ved Prakash	Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka
Shri Mukul Wasnik	Sushila Tiria	Frontal Organisations (Youth Congress, Mahila Congress, N.S.U.I.)
C.P.O.	Satyajit Gaekwad Anil Shastri Satpal Maharaj	Jammu & Kashmir Editor, Congress Sandesh, Unattached
Independent Charge	Secretary
Mani Shankar Aiyar Special Invitee, CWC	Imran Kidwai	Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura And Training Department
Ramesh Chennithala Secretary	Naresh Rawal	Goa, Tamilnadu, Pondicherry, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, Dadar, Nagar haveli, A&N Island
Janardhan Dwivedi Secretary		Congress Sewadal, (Ind. Charge) Attached to CPO
Political Secretaries
Smt. Ambika Soni, Shri Ahmed Patel		(List released on 8-9-2002)