New Delhi, July 18: In his first working committee announced on Tuesday, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has sought to infuse fresh blood in the party’s highest decision- making body while resting many once-powerful veterans.
The new Congress Working Committee consists of 23 regular members, 18 permanent invitees and eight special invitees. It has been seven months in the making since Rahul Gandhi became Congress president on December 16, 2017. In all, 24 of CWC’s 51 members are below 50 years of age in a transitional shift.
The first meeting of the new CWC will take place on July 22. The regular membership of the CWC features party top brass Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora and seniors Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni and Oomen Chandy. Other leaders among CWC regulars are former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, former Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah, senior leader Anand Sharma, ex-Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja, and leaders Mukul Wasnik, Avinash Pande, KC Venugopal, Dipak Babaria, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Raghuveer Meena, Gaikhangam and Ashok Gehlot. Prominent absentees from the list of main members are MP ex-CM Digvijay Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and former general secretaries Madhusudan Mistry, Mohan Prakash and CP Joshi. Among permanent invitees are veterans Sheila Dikshit and P Chidambaram, and young leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia, Balasaheb Thorat, Tariq Hameed Karra and Randeep Surjewala. All state incharges are CWC permanent invitees. Among special invitees are Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda and Haryana MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi.
Prominent regional leaders to miss a CWC berth are Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Haryana ex-CM Bhupinder Hooda and HP ex-CM Virbhadra Singh. Amarinder was earlier permanent invitee to the CWC. Constitutionally, the CWC has 25 members, but Tuesday’s list has 23. This leaves scope for two more.
Source Tribune India
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