Kharge Reconstitutes Congress Working Committee: Here's Who Got In And Who's Out

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has reconstituted the Congress Working Committee, the party's top decision-making body.

The new CWC includes both veteran members and young leaders, as well as prominent figures from the G23 group including Shashi Tharoor and Anand Sharma, who have been critical of the party leadership in the past.

The 84-member CWC, which was formed 10 months after Kharge took charge as Congress chief, consists of 39 regular members, 32 permanent invitees, and 13 special invitees. The group includes 15 women and several new faces under the age of 50, such as Sachin Pilot and Gourav Gogoi, who are among the regular members. The permanent invitees to the CWC include Kanhaiya Kumar and Deepender Hooda, while the special invitees include Supriya Shrinate, Pawan Khera, Praniti Shinde, and Alka Lamba.

Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Himachal Congress chief Pratibha Singh, and G23 leader Veerappa Moily have also been included as permanent invitees to the CWC.

It is worth noting that Himachal Congress chief Singh has recently expressed support for the Modi government's push for a Uniform Civil Code.

The regular members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) are Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manmohan Singh, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram, Tariq Anwar, Lal Thanhawala, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Ashokrao Chavan, Ajay Maken, and Kumari Selja, according to a party statement.

Earlier this year, the Congress amended its constitution during the Plenary session held in Raipur. The amendment provided for 50 per cent reservation in the working committee for SCs, STs, OBCs, women, youth, and minorities. Additionally, the number of CWC members was increased from 23 to 35.

The newly formed CWC now includes former prime minister from the party, former AICC chiefs, as well as leaders of the Congress in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, news agency PTI reported.

Among the regular members of the new CWC are Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, and Tharoor. These three individuals were part of the group of 23 dissident leaders who had previously written to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, raising questions on the party's leadership.

Sachin Pilot, who rebelled against the government in Rajasthan in 2020 and has consistently opposed Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, has now been made a regular member of the CWC.

Manish Tewari, the MP from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and a member of the G23, has been appointed as a permanent invitee.

Tewari is known for always speaking his mind on important national issues.

Several notable individuals have been excluded from the new CWC, including former MP Raghuveer Singh Meena from Rajasthan, Jai Prakash Aggarwal, Dinesh Gundu Rao, H K Patil, K H Muniappa, P L Punia, Pramod Tiwari, and Raghu Sharma. It is worth mentioning that Gundu Rao, Muniappa, and Patil have since become ministers in the Congress government in Karnataka.

The CWC comprises ex-officio members who are presidents of the Youth Congress, the National Students' Union of India, the Mahila Congress, and the Seva Dal.

New regular members of the CWC include former Maharashtra chief minister Ashokrao Chavan, N Raghuveera Reddy, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Deepa Das Munshi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, G A Mir, Gourav Gogoi, and Jagdish Thakore.

The new CWC permanent invitees are Harish Rawat, Pawan Bansal, Ramesh Chennithala, Kanhaiya Kumar, Mohan Prakash, K Raju, Chandrakant Handore, Meenakshi Natarajan, Phulo Devi Netam, Sudeep Roy Burman, Damodar Raja Narasimha, Gurdeep Sappal, and Sachin Rao.

Special invitees to the CWC include former Union minister Pallam Raju, Pawan Khera, Ganesh Godiyal, Kodikkunil Suresh, Yashomati Thakur, Supriya Shrinate, Praniti Shinde, Alka Lamba, and Vamshi Chand Reddy.

The new CWC replaces the previously established Steering Committee, which was formed as a temporary measure after Kharge became the party president on 10 October last year.

The formation of the new CWC comes as the party prepares for important assembly polls in the coming months and the general elections in 2024. Under Sonia Gandhi's presidency, the last reconstitution of the Congress Working Committee took place on 11 September 2020. However, this is the first Working Committee to be formed under Mallikarjun Kharge's presidency.

The new CWC has been formed after several rounds of deliberations.

It should be noted that out of the 84 members in the working committee, only 15 are women.

These women include six general members, four permanent invitees, and five special invitees. For the upcoming elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Mizoram, as well as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Kharge has taken a diplomatic approach for the committee with a mix of young and experienced leaders in order to maintain a balance. Additionally, he has given space to dissident voices by including Tharoor, who previously contested against Kharge for the Congress chief's post.

The G23 leaders, in their push for a reorganisation of the party, went so far as to suggest the need for an active full-time party leadership. These suggestions were seen as indirect criticism towards Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Other members of the new CWC include Gaikhangam, N Raghuveera Reddy, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Abhishek Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Jitendra Singh, Randeep Surjewala, Deepak Babaria, Jagdish Thakore, G S Mir, Avinash Pande, Deepa Das Munshi, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Syed Naseer Hussain, Kamaleshwar Patel, and K C Venugopal.