Talks were replete with promise. The congress showed recently that it is far away from the shackles of the matriarchal system with the election of Mallikarjun Kharge as the congress president. It was unprecedented. Kharge remains a loyalist to the Gandhi family but the change had many meanings imbued in it. And comes the CWC elections. The Gandhi scions voiced for an election process to be held rather than adopting the old redundant process of nomination that includes the congress chief selecting the CWC members. The congress thus was clearly heading if not slow to a leadership that never had the strings with the Gandhi family. But alas, things won't always bear fruit and in the Congress party with all the gatekeepers of the Gandhis present, it braves a challenge to do so.

AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh told that the party has rescinded its stance on conducting the CWC elections, but will stick with the old nomination process. He added that it was a unanimous decision with some serious talks with congress leadership. Back to square one. With this move, the president Mallikarjun Kharge will select the new CWC members, a historical moment as the baton is being passed from Sonia Gandhi who exercised her suzerainty for decades unrivaled.

But it was some despair scenes for many congress honchos in Kerala. When the siren of elections in CWC blared, the leaders retightened their khadi dhotis to enter the fray to find a wiggle room for CWC. Hot exchanges brewed inside the party about whom to contest and who not. The congress discerning this fight has decided to glue with nomination rather than creating fodder for the media to ridicule the already crumbling state of affairs inside the party.

Kharge has promised more than 50% seats to OBC, and SC members in CWC, but insiders say that the final word will still come from 10 Janpath. Congress, always a vociferous party when it comes to saving democracy is a bit quivering when it comes to holding elections within the party. The new move to conduct elections could have given the required facelift to congress with the ascension of new leadership, but the chance was shattered, maybe done to uphold democracy.