Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday released a list of 39 members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Mallikarjun Khage, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and others were mentioned on the list. The surprising name was Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot, while his rival Ashok Gehlot was not placed on the list. After the recent amendments to the Congress constitution, the number of members of the CWC rose from the current 25. While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees, including presidents of the Youth Congress, the National Students' Union of India, the Mahila Congress and the Seva Dal as ex-officio members.
Pilot's inclusion in the list is significant in the wake of the upcoming Rajasthan election and his rebellious attitude against his party colleague and CM Ashok Gehlot.
Shashi Tharoor, who contested against Mallikarjun Kharge in the Congress president election last year, was also placed on the list. He may get a bigger role ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Former JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar was also included in the new Congress team as an in-charge ahead of the crucial General Election 2024.
Tharoor, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik, who were part of the group of 23 leaders that had raised questions on the party's leadership under Sonia Gandhi, are among the general members of the new CWC. Manish Tewari and Veerappa Moily, who were also part of the grouping, have been made permanent invitees.
Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pratibha Singh have also been included in the important panel, according to a Congress statement.
The general members of the CWC are Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram, Tariq Anwar, Lal Thanhawala, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Adhokrao Chavan, Ajay Maken, Charanjit Singh Channi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Kumari Selja, the statement said.
Gaikhangam, N Raghuveera Reddy, Shashi Tharoor, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Abhishek Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Jitendra Singh, Randeep Surjewala, Sachin Pilot, Deepak Babaria, Jagdish Thakore, G S Mir, Avinash Pande, Deepa Das Munshi, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Gourav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Kamaleshwar Patel and K C Venugopal are also members.
No election for CWC
Earlier, the Steering Committee of Congress had unanimously decided to authorise Kharge to nominate all members of the working committee (CWC) rejecting the election for the party's top decision-making body at the party's three-day 85th plenary session held in Chhattisgarh's Raipur from February 24 to 26 this year. At the 85th plenary session, the party also proposed an amendment to its constitution to include former Congress prime ministers and former AICC chiefs as permanent members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), a move that would ensure the automatic inclusion of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the party's highest decision-making body. The inclusion of the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha as also in the Rajya Sabha in the CWC has also been proposed. While most members backed nominations in the CWC, senior leaders Ajay Maken, Digvijaya Singh and Abhishek Manu Singhvi initially favoured holding elections.
