In Congress panel rejig, old make way for young
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday announced his party's reconstituted Congress working committee, or CWC, which saw several veteran leaders being dropped and younger leaders inducted.
This is the first CWC under Rahul Gandhi as the Congress chief. The CWC under Sonia Gandhi was dissolved when elections were conducted to elect the new Congress chief. A steering committee was put in place in February. The reconstituted CWC has 23 members, 18 permanent invitees and 10 special invitees.
In the new CWC, senior leaders Jairam Ramesh, Janardan Dwivedi, Mohan Prakash, C P Joshi, Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Karan Singh and Oscar Fernandes have been dropped.
Younger leaders such as Jitin Prasada, R P N Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajeev Satav and Jeetendra Singh have been inducted. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not included, his son and Lok Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda has been inducted.
Interestingly, not a single leader from Punjab, not even Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, found a place in the reconstituted CWC. Punjab, Mizoram and Karnataka are the only states where the Congress has state governments. In addition, it has a government in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Sources said Uttar Pradesh leader Pramod Tiwari and Rajiv Shukla also couldn’t find a place in the new CWC. While the two were not part of the earlier CWC, there was speculation that they might find a place in the reconstituted panel.
Party sources said Rahul dropping Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh came as a surprise. Both leaders are key to Congress’ fortunes in the upcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan unit chief Sachin Pilot also couldn't find a spot in the CWC.
Merely 24 hours after the Congress president shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the passage of the Bill that provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and assemblies in the Monsoon session of Parliament, the reconstituted CWC has only three women among its 23 members — Sonia Gandhi, Ambika Soni and Kumari Selja.
The 23 CWC members are Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Motilal Vora, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, A K Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Oommen Chandy, Tarun Gogoi, Siddaramaiah, Anand Sharma, Harish Rawat, Kumari Selja, Mukul Wasnik, Avinash Pande, K C Venugopal, Dipak Babaria, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Raghuvar Meena, Gaikhangam and Ashok Gehlot.
The 18 permanent invitees are Sheila Dikshit, P Chidambaram, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Balasaheb Thorat, Tariq Hameed Karra, P C Chacko, Jeetendra Singh, R P N Singh, P L Punia, Randeep Surjewala, Asha Kumari, Rajni Patil, Ram Chandra Khuntia, Anugrah Narayan Singh, Rajeev S Satav, Shaktisinh Gohil, Gaurav Gogoi and A Chella Kumar.
The 10 special invitees are K H Muniyappa, Arun Yadav, Deepender Hooda, Jitin Prasada, Kuldeep Bishnoi, president INTUC, president of the Youth Congress, president of National Students Union of India (NSUI), president of Mahila Congress and chief organisation of the Congress Seva Dal.