Congress Working Committee

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.

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.
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The Working Committee has had different levels of power in the party at different times. In the period prior to 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 bosses 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

Members

  1. Rahul Gandhi MP
  2. Manmohan Singh Former PM
  3. Mallikarjun Kharge MP
  4. Priyanka Gandhi
  5. Ghulam Nabi Azad MP, Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha
  6. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury MP, Leader of INC, Lok Sabha
  7. A. K. Antony MP
  8. Ahmed Patel MP
  9. K.C Venugopal MP
  10. Motilal Vora Ex MP
  11. Ambika Soni MP
  12. Anand Sharma MP
  13. Avinash Pande Ex MP
  14. Harish Rawat Former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
  15. Tarun Gogoi Former Chief Minister of Assam
  16. Luizinho Faleiro Former Chief Minister of Goa
  17. Oommen Chandy Former Chief Minister of Kerala
  18. Mukul Wasnik Ex Union Minister
  19. Gaikhangam Gangmei Ex Dy CM, Manipur
  20. Raghuveer Meena Ex MP
  21. Tamradhwaj Sahu Cabinet minister, Chhattisgarh

Permanent Invitees

  1. P. Chidambaram MP
  2. Meira Kumar Former Speaker of Lok Sabha
  3. Tariq Hameed Karra Ex MP
  4. P. C. Chacko Ex MP
  5. Jitendra Singh Ex Union Minister
  6. R. P. N. Singh Ex Union Minister
  7. P. L. Punia MP
  8. Randeep Surjewala Ex Minister, Haryana
  9. Asha Kumari MLA
  10. Rajni Patil Ex MP
  11. Ramachandra Khuntia Ex MP
  12. Anuragh Narayan singh Ex MLA
  13. Rajiv Satav MP
  14. Shaktisinh Gohil MP
  15. Gaurav Gogoi MP
  16. A. Chellakumar MP


Special Invitees

  1. K. H. Muniyappa Ex Union Minister
  2. Arun Yadav Ex Union Minister
  3. Depender Hooda MP
  4. Jitin Prasada Ex Union Minister
  5. Kuldeep Bishnoi MLA
  6. Sachin Rao
  7. G. Sanjeeva Reddy President, INTUC
  8. B.V.Srinivas President, IYC
  9. Neeraj Kundan President, NSUI
  10. Sushmita Dev President, AIMC
  11. Lalji Desai Chief Organiser, Seva Dal

Criticism

The Congress has not held internal elections to CWC for nearly 20 years in 2017 when Election Commission ordered it to hold internal elections.[2] 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."[3] Ever since Rahul Gandhi's resignation as party president in July 2019, there is persistent confusion over whether he continues to be a CWC member or not.[4] 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."[5]

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.
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20190812004128/https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/nobody-but-rahul-says-congress-leader-whose-father-ran-vs-sonia-gandhi-1759057
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20200206174034/https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/congress-defamed-rahul-gandhi-should-return-to-lead-sanjay-nirupam-after-maharashtra-twist-2137334
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20200226123542/https://www.news18.com/news/politics/old-grudge-unfulfilled-demands-why-rahul-gandhi-remained-absent-from-congresss-meet-on-delhi-riots-2516309.html
  5. https://web.archive.org/web/20200314154627/https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/congress-moving-towards-extinction-54571/
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