Mallikarjun Kharge rejigs CWC
Former vice president Hamid Ansari and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi present the 25th Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award to Siddharth Shastri Banasthali on the birth anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi
New Delhi: After months of anticipation and delays, the Congress on Sunday revealed the lineup of its Congress Working Committee (CWC). Gearing up for multiple state as well Lok Sabha polls next year, the Congress has revamped party’s top decision-making body by retaining experienced figures while infusing fresh blood into the panel.
This announcement comes nearly half a year after the Raipur session, during which Mallikarjun Kharge's presidency was formally ratified. The previous CWC underwent dissolution following the assumption of the new president's role, evolving into a temporary steering committee.
Besides the Gandhi family (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka) and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the committee will now have new entrants Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Syed Nasser Hussain, Gaurav Gogoi among others.
The inclusion of Tharoor and Pilot is significant. By inducting Tharoor, Kharge has sent a signal thahe has taken the electoral battle in the spirit of inner-party democracy.
Pilot’s elevation is aimed at sending two messages.
That the party values Pilot, despite rebuffing his chief ministerial ambitions, and his key role in Rajasthan politics. It also takes pressure off Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ahead of Assembly elections in November-December.
The rejig comes months after the party had decided to not hold elections to the CWC at a meeting of the Steering Committee not attended by members of the Gandhi family (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka). In the February meeting, it was unanimously decided to authorise Kharge to nominate the members.
Ten months after he took over as Congress president, Kharge constituted the panel also inducting Shashi Tharoor who contested against him in the high-stakes presidential elections last year. With Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, the exercise was a deft and delicate balancing act by Kharge.
He has also brought in former Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor, former J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Gujarat leader Deepak Babaria, Bengal leader Deepa Dasmunsi, former Andhra Pradesh Congress chief N Raghuveera Reddy, Chhattisgarh Home Minister Tamaradhwaj Sahu, young Madhya Pradesh MLA Kamaleshwar Patel, and Rajasthan minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, besides former CMs Ashok Chavan and Charanjit Singh Channi, into the enlarged 39-member CWC.