Deconstructing Kharge's New Team: Who's In And Why It's Important

Ahead of the 2024 elections, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wants to make the Congress battle ready by reconstituting the Congress Working Committee. However, the inclusion of leaders like Shashi Tharoor and Sachin Pilot in the newly constructed committee is the twist in the tale.

Tharoor who decided to contest the Congress presidential polls against Kharge has been nominated by the Congress President as a part of the CWC. Earlier, many of the party members were dissatisfied with Tharoor while he was contesting against Kharge with the way Tharoor was conducting the campaign. .

On the other hand, Pilot, who rebelled against the party's government in Rajasthan and was later removed as deputy chief minister is also part of CWC nominated by Kharge. However, his entry into the CWC might help him regain his power in Rajasthan.

Kharge on Sunday announced the newly formed CWC. While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state, and 13 special invitees, including presidents of the Youth Congress, the National Students' Union of India, the Mahila Congress and the Seva Dal as ex-officio members.

It was also announced that the CWC will have leaders from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minority communities, as well as women.

Jitendra Singh, Randeep Surjewala, K.C. Venugopal, and Ambika Soni have been retained. Minakshi Natarajan and Syed Nasir Hussain have also been included as permanent members. Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pratibha Singh have also been included in the important panel, according to a Congress statement.

Now, new entrants in the core CWC include N. Raghuveera Reddy, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Jagdish Thakore, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Deepa Dasmunsi, and Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya.

The general members of the CWC are Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram, Tariq Anwar, Lal Thanhawala, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Adhokrao Chavan, Ajay Maken, Charanjit Singh Channi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Kumari Selja, the statement said.

Former student leader Kanhaiya Kumar also made it to the party's top body as in charge of the Congress' student wing, the National Students' Union of India.

The party shared the list of appointees on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The reshuffle in the CWC comes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. However, the motto of the Congress 50 under 50 is still dissatisfied. The aim of the CWC was to include 50 percent of the permanent members under the age of 50. But the party failed to fulfill the target. While the newly formed CWC has young members, only three leaders under the age of 50 years - Sachin Pilot, Gaurav Gogoi, and Kamleshwar Patel as permanent members.