Congress President Rahul Gandhi rejigged the apex decision-making body, Congress Working Committee and appointed an amalgamation of old and new in the reconstituted body.
The newly formed CWC comes as a surprise as many old veterans have been shown the door. Gandhi has ensured a balance between youth and experience in the new body. This is the first CWC appointed by Gandhi after his election as the party chief in December 2017. Sonia Gandhi, the Party President of Congress for 19 years left the reins of the party to her son last year.
The body which includes many new faces along with the old ones has been termed as “change with continuity” by the party members. The reconstituted body will conduct a meeting on July 22.
The new CWC is constituted of 23 core members including the Party President and Sonia Gandhi herself, 18 permanent invitees which include veteran leader P. Chidambaram and 10 special invitees.
As opposed to Congress’ appeal of 33 percent women reservation in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, there are only three women among the core members–Sonia Gandhi, Ambika Soni and Kumari Selja. The other women leaders are part of special and permanent invitees. The list includes Dikshit, Asha Kumari, Sushmita Dev and Rajni Patil among the permanent and special invitees.
Many former and current Chief Ministers of the party have also been cut off from the highest decision-making body of the party. Digvijaya Singh, former CM of Madhya Pradesh and party’s controversial veteran, Prithviraj Chavan, ex-CM of Maharashtra, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, ex-CM Haryana and Virbhadra Singh, ex-CM of Himachal Pradesh were excluded from the CWC. Digvijaya Singh commented on this newly constituted body to ThePrint, “I am working in Madhya Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi is my leader. He has picked up his own team.”
Muslim minority leaders include Ghulam Nabi Azad and Tariq Hameed Karra and Ahmed Patel. Dalit leaders are represented by Mallikarjun Kharge, Selja, Mukul Wasnik and P L Punia.
The list also excludes any representation from main states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, West Bengal and Goa.
The new members to make the cut and represent a blend of old and new are: Gogoi, Siddaramaiah, Kumari Selja, Raghuveer Meena, Gaikhangam Gangmei and Tamradhwaj Sahu.