Congress Working Committee

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Template:Short description Template:Indian National Congress sidebar Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Indian English 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 is composed of senior party leaders and is responsible for taking decisions on important policy and organizational matters, as well as guiding and directing the party's activities and campaigns at the national level. It typically consists of fifteen members elected from the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The CWC is headed by the party president, who is elected by the members of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the party's central governing body.

File:Gandhi Patel 1940.jpg
Mahatma Gandhi attends a Congress Working Committee meeting at Anand Bhavan, Allahabad; Vallabhbhai Patel to the left, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit to the right, January 1940.

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 of Congress Working Committee

Sources:[2][3][4]

President

Name Portrait Position in government
Mallikarjun Kharge
File:Shri Mallikarjun Kharge takes over the charge of Union Minister for Railways, in New Delhi on June 19, 2013 (cropped).jpg
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Members[5]

S. No Member Portrait Position in government
1. Sonia Gandhi File:Sonia Gandhi 2014 (cropped).jpg Template:Ulist
2. Rahul Gandhi File:Rahul Gandhi.png Template:Ulist
3. A. K. Antony File:A. K. Antony.jpg Template:Ulist
4. Ambika Soni File:Ambika Soni.jpg Template:Ulist
5. Abhishek Singhvi File:Abhishek Manu Singhvi at the India Economic Summit 2008.jpg Template:Ulist
6. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury File:The Minister of State for Railways, Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury addressing at the presentation of the National Awards for Outstanding Service in Railways, in Mumbai on April 16, 2013 (cropped).jpg Template:Ulist
7. Ajay Maken File:Ajay Maken at NDTV Sports event.jpg Template:Ulist
8. Anand Sharma File:Anand Sharma - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012.jpg Template:Ulist
9. Jairam Ramesh File:Jairam ramesh.jpg Template:Ulist
10. Gaikhangam Gangmei Template:Ulist
11. Jitendra Singh File:The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Jitendra Singh addressing the media persons after his visit from Lausanne, Switzerland, in New Delhi on May 16, 2013.jpg Template:Ulist
12. Selja Kumari File:Selja - Kolkata 2011-11-05 6516 Cropped.JPG Template:Ulist
13. Dr Lal Thanhawla File:Lal Thanhawla.jpg Template:Ulist
14. Mukul Wasnik File:Mukul Wasnik in January 2010.jpg Template:Ulist
15. Charanjit Singh Channi File:Charanjit Singh Channi.png Template:Ulist
16. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Template:Ulist
17. P. Chidambaram File:Palaniappan Chidambaram - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011 (cropped).jpg Template:Ulist
18. Randeep Surjewala File:Randeep Surjewala.jpg Template:Ulist
19. N. Raghuveera Reddy File:N. Raghu Veera Reddy.png Template:Ulist
20. Tariq Anwar
File:Tariq Anwar addressing the National Conference of State Ministers of Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries, in New Delhi on February 06, 2013.jpg
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21. Sachin Pilot File:Sachin Pilot at the India Economic Summit 2010 cropped.jpg Template:Ulist
22. Tamradhwaj Sahu Template:Ulist
23. Shashi Tharoor File:Sasi Tharoor 2021 at Kollam.jpg Template:Ulist
24. Salman Khurshid File:Salman Khurshid portrait (cropped).jpg Template:Ulist
25. Digvijaya Singh File:Digvijaya Singh (cropped).jpg Template:Ulist
26. Bhupesh Baghel File:Bhupesh Baghel.jpg Template:Ulist
27. Meira Kumar File:Meira Kumar.jpg Template:Ulist
28. Jagdish Thakor Template:Ulist
29. Ghulam Ahmad Mir Template:Ulist
30. Avinash Pandey Template:Ulist
31. Deepa Dasmunsi File:The Minister of State for Urban Development, Smt. Deepa Dasmunsi addressing at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between EEPC India, CII & Kotra, in New Delhi on January 16, 2014.jpg Template:Ulist
32. Gaurav Gogoi File:Gaurav Gogoi 2024.jpg Template:Ulist
33. Syed Naseer Hussain Template:Ulist
34. Kamleshwar Patel File:Kamleshwar patel bhaiya.jpg Template:Ulist
35. K. C. Venugopal File:K.C. Venugopal addressing at the Concurrent session – Young Achievers, at the 12th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ‘Engaging Diaspora Connecting Across Generation’, in New Delhi on January 07, 2014 (cropped).jpg Template:Ulist
36. Balasaheb Thorat Template:Ulist

Permanent Invitees

[6]

S.no Member Portrait Position
1. Ajay Kumar Lallu ex MLA, Uttar Pradesh
2. Rajeev Shukla File:RajeevShukla.jpg MP
3. A. Chellakumar Ex MP Lok Sabha
4. Pratibha Singh Ex MP Lok Sabha
5. Pawan Kumar Bansal File:PawanKumarBansalChd.JPG ex MP, (Chandigarh)
6. Veerappa Moily File:Veerappa Moily BNC.jpg ex MP, (Karnataka)
7. Harish Rawat File:HarishRawat.jpg Former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
8. Rajani Patil File:Rajani Patil official portrait.jpg MP
9. Harish Chaudhary MLA, Rajasthan
10. Ramesh Chennithala File:Ramesh Chennithala profile 02.jpg MLA, Kerala
11. B. K. Hariprasad MLC, Karnataka
12. Manish Tewari File:Manish Tewari.jpg MP, chandigarh
13. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa File:Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.jpg MP
14. Deepender Singh Hooda File:Indian Red Cross Society.jpg MP, Haryana
15. Krishna Allavaru
16. Girish Chodankar
17. Gurdeep Singh Sappal
18. T. Subbarami Reddy File:T.Subbarami Reddy.jpg ex MP, Andhra Pradesh
19. K Raju
20. Manikrao Thakre Ex MLA
21. Chandrakant Handore File:MP Chandrakant Handore.jpg MP Rajya Sabha, ex MLAMaharashtra
22. Meenakshi Natarajan File:Meenakshi Natarajan.jpg ex MP, Madhya Pradesh
23. Manickam Tagore File:Manickam Tagore.jpeg MP
24. Phulo Devi Netam MP, Chhattisgarh
25. Damodar Raja Narasimha File:Damodara Rajanarsimha.jpg Cabinet Minister, Telangana
26. Sudip Roy Barman File:Shri Sudip Roy Burman.jpg MLA, Tripura
27. K. Sudhakaran File:K.sudhakaran.jpg MP
28. Akhilesh Prasad Singh File:The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Agriculture, Dr. Akhilesh Prasad Singh addressing at the National Productivity Awards Ceremony for the Agriculture Sector, in New Delhi on May 24, 2007 (cropped).jpg MP
29. Qazi Mohd Nizamuddin MLA, Uttarakhand
30. Saptagiri Ulaka File:Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka.jpg MP
31. Vijay Inder Singla File:Shri-Vijay-Inder-Singla.jpg Ex MLA
32. Kanhaiya Kumar File:Kanhaiya Kumar.jpg
33. Sachin Rao

Special Invitees

[7]

S. No Member Portrait Position
1. Alka Lamba File:AlkaLambaNew.jpg President, All India Mahila Congress
2. Varun Choudhary President, NSUI
3. Uday Bhanu Chib President, IYC
4. Lalji Desai Chief Organiser ,Seva Dal
5. Supriya Shrinate File:Supriya shrinate during press conference.jpg Chairman, Social Media & Platforms
6. Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy Ex MLA
7. Kodikunnil Suresh File:കൊടിക്കുന്നിൽ സുരേഷ്.jpg MP
8. Yashomati Thakur Ex MLA
9. Gidugu Rudra Raju ex President APCC
10. Ganesh Godiyal File:Ganesh Godiyal.png Ex MLA
11. Praniti Shinde MP
12. M. M. Pallam Raju File:The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju addressing at the release of the National Achievement Survey - Class III Children Achievement Report, in New Delhi on February 28, 2014.jpg ex-MP
13. Pawan Khera Chairman, Media & Publicity
14. Vikar Rasool Wani Ex President J&KPCC
15. Naseem Khan Ex MLA Maharashtra

Criticism

The Congress has not held internal elections for CWC for nearly 20 years and the last elections were held in 1998.[8] In 2017 Election Commission ordered it to hold internal elections[9] but as of 2020 no elections were held.[10] 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."[11] [12] In 2020 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."[13]

See also

References

  1. "Towards a More Competitive Party System in India", Ram Joshi and Kirtidev Desai, Asian Survey, Vol. 18, No. 11. (Nov., 1978), pp. 1091-1116.
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External links

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