Congress Working Committee
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The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is the executive committee of the Indian National Congress. It was formed in December 1920 at Nagpur session of INC which was headed by C. Vijayaraghavachariar. It typically consists of fifteen members elected from the All India Congress Committee. It is headed by the Working President.
The Working Committee has had different levels of power in the party at different times. In the period prior to Indian independence in 1947, the Working Committee was the centre of power, and the Working President was frequently more active than the Congress President. In the period after 1967, when the Congress Party split for the first time (between factions loyal to Indira Gandhi and those led by the Syndicate of regional leaders including Kamaraj, Prafulla Chandra Sen, Ajoy Mukherjee, and Morarji Desai), the power of the Working Committee declined; but Indira Gandhi's triumph in 1971 led to a re-centralisation of power away from the states and the All-India Congress Committee and caused the Working Committee in Delhi to once again be the paramount decision-making body of the party.[1] The centralised nature of Congress decision making has since caused observers in the states to informally describe instructions from Delhi as coming from the "High Command".
Composition
President
| Sl No | Name | Portrait | Position in government |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sonia Gandhi[2] (10 August 2019 – 19 October 2022) |
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|
MP & Ex Leader of Opposition Loksabha |
| 2. | Mallikarjun Kharge[3] (19 October 2022 - Incumbent) |
File:MallikarjunKharge.jpg | Ex MLA, MP & Ex Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha |
Members[4]
| Member | Portrait | Position in government |
|---|---|---|
| Rahul Gandhi | .jpg)
|
Member of Parliament |
| Priyanka Gandhi Vadra | .jpg)
|
General Secretary |
| Manmohan Singh | 
|
|
| P. Chidambaram | 
|
Member of Parliament |
| A. K. Antony | 
|
Member of Parliament |
| Ambika Soni |
|
Member of Parliament |
| Meira Kumar |
|
Former Speaker of Lok Sabha |
| Oommen Chandy | Former Chief Minister of Kerala | |
| Harish Rawat | 
|
|
| Dr Lal Thanhawla | 
|
Former Chief Minister of Mizoram |
| Anand Sharma |
|
Member of Parliament |
| Mukul Wasnik | 
|
Ex Union Minister |
| K.C Venugopal |
|
Member of Parliament , General Seceretary (organisation) |
| Ajay Maken |
|
Former Member of Parliament |
| Jitendra Singh | Former Union Minister | |
| Tariq Anwar | 
|
Former Member of Parliament |
| Gaikhangam Gangmei | Former Deputy Chief Minister, Manipur | |
| Raghuveer Meena | Former Member of Parliament |
.jpg)
Permanent Invitees
| Member | party Position |
|---|---|
| Digvijaya Singh | MP |
| Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury | MP |
| Jairam Ramesh | MP |
| Salman Khurshid | Ex MP |
| Avinash Pandey | Ex MP |
| K. H. Muniyappa | Ex MP |
| Pramod Tiwari | MP |
| Tariq Hameed Karra | Ex MP |
| Pawan Kumar Bansal | Ex MP |
| Rajni Patil | MP |
| P. L. Punia | Ex MP |
| Shaktisinh Gohil | MP |
| Rajeev Shukla | MP |
| Dinesh Gundu Rao | MLA |
| Manicka Tagore | MP |
| A. Chellakumar | MP |
| Ajoy Kumar | Ex MP |
| H. K. Patil | MLA |
| Devender Yadav | Ex MLA |
| Vivek Bansal | |
| Manish Chatrath | |
| Bhakta Charan Das | Ex Union Minister |
| Kuljit Singh Nagra |
Special Invitees
| Member | party Position |
|---|---|
| G. Sanjeeva Reddy | President, INTUC |
| Neeraj Kundan | President, NSUI |
| BV Srinivas | President, IYC |
| Lalji Desai | Chief Organiser ,Seva Dal |
| Depender Hooda | MP |
| Chinta Mohan | Ex-MP |
| Sachin Rao | Training Incharge |
Criticism
The Congress has not held internal elections to CWC for nearly 20 years and last elections were held in 1998.[7] In 2017 Election Commission ordered it to hold internal elections[8] but as of 2020 no elections were held.[9] When Congress was trying to forge an alliance with ideologically opposite Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in 2019, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam publicly urged Sonia Gandhi to dissolve the CWC, saying "they cannot be trusted anymore."[10] [11] A paper by Observer Research Foundation calls a large number of CWC members "unprincipled, opportunists and self-serving individuals for whom self-interest is paramount."[12]
See also
References
- ^ "Towards a More Competitive Party System in India", Ram Joshi and Kirtidev Desai, Asian Survey, Vol. 18, No. 11. (Nov., 1978), pp. 1091-1116.
- ^ "AICC Office Bearers – President". inc.in. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
- ^ "Karnataka Congress celebrates Mallikarjun Kharge's election as AICC president". 19 October 2022.
- ^ "Indian National Congress - Congress Working Committee".
- ^ "Indian National Congress - Congress Working Committee". Archived from the original on 20 July 2019.
- ^ "Indian National Congress - Congress Working Committee". Archived from the original on 17 July 2019.
- ^ "Nobody But Rahul, Says Congress Leader Whose Father Ran vs Sonia Gandhi". Archived from the original on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ^ "Election Commission Tells Congress to Hold Internal Elections by June 30". Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ^ Pankaj Vohra (8 August 2020). "EC can freeze Congress symbol or initiate action if party remains leaderless". Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ^ "Congress "Defamed", Rahul Gandhi Should Return to Lead: Sanjay Nirupam After Maharashtra Twist". Archived from the original on 6 February 2020.
- ^ "Old Grudge, Unfulfilled Demand: Why Rahul Gandhi Remained Absent from Cong's Meet on Delhi Riots". 26 February 2020. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020.
- ^ "Congress moving towards extinction?". Archived from the original on 14 March 2020.
External links
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