News Analysis India

Tag: Congress Working Committee

  • Kharge reconstitutes CWC, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot included in new team

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday reconstituted the party’s top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (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.

    Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik, who were part of the group of 23 leaders that had raised questions on the party’s leadership under Sonia Gandhi, are among the general members of the new CWC.

    Manish Tewari and Veerappa Moily, who were also part of the grouping, have been made permanent invitees.

    Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pratibha Singh have also been included in the important panel, according to a Congress statement.

    Sachin Pilot, who rebelled against the party’s government in Rajasthan and was later removed as deputy chief minister, is also among the new CWC members.

    The CWC was formed months after Kharge became the party president on October 10 last year and replaces the Steering Committee that was formed as a stop-gap arrangement.

    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.

    Gaikhangam, N Raghuveera Reddy, Shashi Tharoor, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Abhishek Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Jitendra Singh, Randeep Surjewala, Sachin Pilot, Deepak Babaria, Jagdish Thakore, G S Mir, Avinash Pande, Deepa Das Munshi, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Gourav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Kamaleshwar Patel and K C Venugopal are also members.

    NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday reconstituted the party’s top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (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.

    Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik, who were part of the group of 23 leaders that had raised questions on the party’s leadership under Sonia Gandhi, are among the general members of the new CWC.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Manish Tewari and Veerappa Moily, who were also part of the grouping, have been made permanent invitees.

    Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pratibha Singh have also been included in the important panel, according to a Congress statement.

    Sachin Pilot, who rebelled against the party’s government in Rajasthan and was later removed as deputy chief minister, is also among the new CWC members.

    The CWC was formed months after Kharge became the party president on October 10 last year and replaces the Steering Committee that was formed as a stop-gap arrangement.

    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.

    Gaikhangam, N Raghuveera Reddy, Shashi Tharoor, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Abhishek Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Jitendra Singh, Randeep Surjewala, Sachin Pilot, Deepak Babaria, Jagdish Thakore, G S Mir, Avinash Pande, Deepa Das Munshi, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Gourav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Kamaleshwar Patel and K C Venugopal are also members.

  • All CWC members, general secretaries, and in-charges tender their resignation to Kharge

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: After Mallikarjun Kharge officially took charge as the Congress president on Wednesday, all the members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), general secretaries and in-charges tendered their resignations.

    The new President will announce his new team while the CWC election will take place to elect 12 members.

    “All the CWC Members, AICC General Secretaries and Incharges have tendered their resignation to Hon’ble Congress President,” tweeted K.C. Venugopal.

    All the CWC Members, AICC General Secretaries and Incharges have tendered their resignation to Hon’ble Congress President.
    — K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) October 26, 2022
    Earlier, Kharge in his maiden speech said, “There is an attempt to replace Baba Saheb’s Constitution with the Sangh Constitution and the Congress will not let it happen.”

    He alleged that the “New India was without jobs, poverty is large and farmers are being crushed under wheels. The government’s effort is to make the country oppositionless, but the Congress will fight the government for the people.”

    He said as per the Udaipur declaration, the party posts will be filled and there will be a social advisory Committee with special emphasis on SC, ST and OBC.

    He said that he started his career as a block Congress committee worker in 1969 and now is the party President.

    He also thanked Sonia Gandhi for her efforts to strengthen the Congress as the party president.

    NEW DELHI: After Mallikarjun Kharge officially took charge as the Congress president on Wednesday, all the members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), general secretaries and in-charges tendered their resignations.

    The new President will announce his new team while the CWC election will take place to elect 12 members.

    “All the CWC Members, AICC General Secretaries and Incharges have tendered their resignation to Hon’ble Congress President,” tweeted K.C. Venugopal.

    All the CWC Members, AICC General Secretaries and Incharges have tendered their resignation to Hon’ble Congress President.
    — K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) October 26, 2022
    Earlier, Kharge in his maiden speech said, “There is an attempt to replace Baba Saheb’s Constitution with the Sangh Constitution and the Congress will not let it happen.”

    He alleged that the “New India was without jobs, poverty is large and farmers are being crushed under wheels. The government’s effort is to make the country oppositionless, but the Congress will fight the government for the people.”

    He said as per the Udaipur declaration, the party posts will be filled and there will be a social advisory Committee with special emphasis on SC, ST and OBC.

    He said that he started his career as a block Congress committee worker in 1969 and now is the party President.

    He also thanked Sonia Gandhi for her efforts to strengthen the Congress as the party president.

  • Kharge faces Congress Working Committee conundrum, leaders seek poll

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: As veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is set to assume charge as the new Congress president today, the most crucial question doing the rounds is whether he will hold elections for the Congress Working Committee. The elections to the CWC were last held in 1997 at the AICC’s Calcutta plenary session. 

    The CWC consists of 23 members, out of which 12 are elected and 11 are nominated. All India Congress Committee (AICC) members form the Electoral College to elect the 12 CWC members, in case of a contest.

    The elections to the CWC, the highest executive committee of the party, and other positions, were some of the demands raised by senior leaders of the G-23 group. It will be significant if Congress holds the CWC election as it promised.

    The CWC consists of top leadership of the party. Some senior leaders are apprehensive whether the party is keen on holding CWC elections as several PCC chiefs have already passed resolutions authorising the new Congress president to nominate PCC chiefs and AICC members. It was after Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry wrote to PCCs doing so last month. The states, which have passed resolutions to this effect, include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and Chattisgarh.

    One senior leader, requesting anonymity, told this newspaper that the ‘fairness of the CWC election will be in question if the president-elect AICC members to elect the 12 CWC members.’ “If the leadership gets the electoral college of their choosing, then the election is meaningless. If AICC members are nominated by the president, then the CWC will only be a formality,” he said.

    Earlier, the party has announced that along with the election of the president, elections to the CWC, PCC presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers, PCC executives and AICC members by the PCC general body will also be held.

    According to the Congress constitution, the CWC constitutes Congress president, its leader in the Parliament and 23 members, out of which 12 are being elected by AICC. In the past, elections to the CWC were held under PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari in 1992 and 1997 respectively.

    In his manifesto, Shashi Tharoor, Kharge’s main challenger in the president election, had promised election for the CWC and revival of the Parliamentary Board of the party. Speaking to this newspaper, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and a member of the G-23 group, Prithviraj Chavan, said that he wants the new president to hold democratic elections for all important positions in the party.

    “Though Maharashtra also passed a resolution authorising the new AICC president to appoint PCC chiefs and AICC members, we will request the new president to hold elections for the PCC presidents. It’s up to the party if it wants the democratic process or not,” he said. 

    Senior Kerala Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that AICC members will be selected during plenary session and the members will authorise the Congress president to form the CWC either through election or nomination. “AICC members will be selected during the plenary session. AICC members will pass a resolution to entrust Congress working president to form the CWC, either through elections or nominations. Both the possibilities are there,” he said.

    NEW DELHI: As veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is set to assume charge as the new Congress president today, the most crucial question doing the rounds is whether he will hold elections for the Congress Working Committee. The elections to the CWC were last held in 1997 at the AICC’s Calcutta plenary session. 

    The CWC consists of 23 members, out of which 12 are elected and 11 are nominated. All India Congress Committee (AICC) members form the Electoral College to elect the 12 CWC members, in case of a contest.

    The elections to the CWC, the highest executive committee of the party, and other positions, were some of the demands raised by senior leaders of the G-23 group. It will be significant if Congress holds the CWC election as it promised.

    The CWC consists of top leadership of the party. Some senior leaders are apprehensive whether the party is keen on holding CWC elections as several PCC chiefs have already passed resolutions authorising the new Congress president to nominate PCC chiefs and AICC members. It was after Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry wrote to PCCs doing so last month. The states, which have passed resolutions to this effect, include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and Chattisgarh.

    One senior leader, requesting anonymity, told this newspaper that the ‘fairness of the CWC election will be in question if the president-elect AICC members to elect the 12 CWC members.’ “If the leadership gets the electoral college of their choosing, then the election is meaningless. If AICC members are nominated by the president, then the CWC will only be a formality,” he said.

    Earlier, the party has announced that along with the election of the president, elections to the CWC, PCC presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers, PCC executives and AICC members by the PCC general body will also be held.

    According to the Congress constitution, the CWC constitutes Congress president, its leader in the Parliament and 23 members, out of which 12 are being elected by AICC. In the past, elections to the CWC were held under PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari in 1992 and 1997 respectively.

    In his manifesto, Shashi Tharoor, Kharge’s main challenger in the president election, had promised election for the CWC and revival of the Parliamentary Board of the party. Speaking to this newspaper, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and a member of the G-23 group, Prithviraj Chavan, said that he wants the new president to hold democratic elections for all important positions in the party.

    “Though Maharashtra also passed a resolution authorising the new AICC president to appoint PCC chiefs and AICC members, we will request the new president to hold elections for the PCC presidents. It’s up to the party if it wants the democratic process or not,” he said. 

    Senior Kerala Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that AICC members will be selected during plenary session and the members will authorise the Congress president to form the CWC either through election or nomination. “AICC members will be selected during the plenary session. AICC members will pass a resolution to entrust Congress working president to form the CWC, either through elections or nominations. Both the possibilities are there,” he said.

  • CWC to meet Sunday to approve schedule for election of Congress president

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet on Sunday to approve the schedule of dates for the election of the next party president.

    This comes in the backdrop of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad’s shock resignation Friday.

    Sources said besides giving approval to the polls schedule, the members of the CWC, the party’s highest decision-making body, could also express confidence in the leadership provided by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

    This would be significant in the context of Azad’s resignation and criticism of the leadership.

    Azad ended his five-decade association with the party and lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing its entire consultative mechanism”.

    The Congress, dealing with the fallout of a series of high-profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal and Ashwani Kumar, attempted to deflect the latest blow by alleging that Azad’s DNA had been “Modi-fied” and linking his resignation to the end of his Rajya Sabha tenure.

    Ahead of the CWC meeting, to be held virtually at 3:30 PM with Sonia Gandhi presiding over it, party sources had said the process of the election of the president will be delayed by a few weeks, not more than that, and the party should have a full-time president in October.

    The Congress had announced in October last year that the election of the new party president will be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.

    The CWC had decided that elections for block committees and one member each of state Congress units will be held from April 16 to May 31, district committee chiefs will be elected between June 1 and July 20, state chiefs and AICC members between July 21 and August 20, and AICC president between August 21 and September 20.

    Sources had also said the election of the Congress president is likely to be delayed by a few weeks with the party focused on the Kanyakumari to Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ starting September 7 and some state units not completing formalities.

    With Sonia Gandhi abroad for medical checkups and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanying her, they will join the CWC meeting virtually.

    The meeting comes amid several leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, having publicly exhorted Rahul Gandhi to return as the party chief.

    However, uncertainty and suspense continue on the issue.

    Several party insiders say Rahul Gandhi is persisting with his stance that he will not be the AICC president.

    Gehlot on Wednesday had sought to play down reports about him being the frontrunner for the Congress president’s post and said efforts will be made till the last minute to persuade Rahul Gandhi to take over the reins of the party again.

    Gehlot’s remarks had come a day after he met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, triggering the buzz that the two may have discussed the possibility of him being the next party president.

    Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in parliamentary elections in 2019.

    Sonia Gandhi who took over the reins of the party again as interim president had also offered to quit in August 2020 after an open revolt by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the CWC had urged her to continue.

    NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet on Sunday to approve the schedule of dates for the election of the next party president.

    This comes in the backdrop of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad’s shock resignation Friday.

    Sources said besides giving approval to the polls schedule, the members of the CWC, the party’s highest decision-making body, could also express confidence in the leadership provided by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

    This would be significant in the context of Azad’s resignation and criticism of the leadership.

    Azad ended his five-decade association with the party and lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing its entire consultative mechanism”.

    The Congress, dealing with the fallout of a series of high-profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal and Ashwani Kumar, attempted to deflect the latest blow by alleging that Azad’s DNA had been “Modi-fied” and linking his resignation to the end of his Rajya Sabha tenure.

    Ahead of the CWC meeting, to be held virtually at 3:30 PM with Sonia Gandhi presiding over it, party sources had said the process of the election of the president will be delayed by a few weeks, not more than that, and the party should have a full-time president in October.

    The Congress had announced in October last year that the election of the new party president will be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.

    The CWC had decided that elections for block committees and one member each of state Congress units will be held from April 16 to May 31, district committee chiefs will be elected between June 1 and July 20, state chiefs and AICC members between July 21 and August 20, and AICC president between August 21 and September 20.

    Sources had also said the election of the Congress president is likely to be delayed by a few weeks with the party focused on the Kanyakumari to Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ starting September 7 and some state units not completing formalities.

    With Sonia Gandhi abroad for medical checkups and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanying her, they will join the CWC meeting virtually.

    The meeting comes amid several leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, having publicly exhorted Rahul Gandhi to return as the party chief.

    However, uncertainty and suspense continue on the issue.

    Several party insiders say Rahul Gandhi is persisting with his stance that he will not be the AICC president.

    Gehlot on Wednesday had sought to play down reports about him being the frontrunner for the Congress president’s post and said efforts will be made till the last minute to persuade Rahul Gandhi to take over the reins of the party again.

    Gehlot’s remarks had come a day after he met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, triggering the buzz that the two may have discussed the possibility of him being the next party president.

    Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in parliamentary elections in 2019.

    Sonia Gandhi who took over the reins of the party again as interim president had also offered to quit in August 2020 after an open revolt by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the CWC had urged her to continue.

  • Azad jumps on ‘leave Congress’ bandwagon; exodus of leaders from party continues unabated

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The exodus of senior Congress leaders, once seen as mainstays of the party, continues unabated with Ghulam Nabi Azad jumping on the “leave Congress” bandwagon at a time when the party is struggling to shore up its dwindling electoral fortunes.

    Several leaders, many of them part of the party’s highest decision-making body Congress Working Committee (CWC), have exited recently, citing reasons ranging from the party’s lack of ground-level presence to its leadership’s shortcomings.

    Azad resigned from the party on Friday ahead of the organisational polls, terming the Congress “comprehensively destroyed” and accusing the leadership of committing “fraud” on the party in the name of “sham” internal elections.

    Delivering another blow to the embattled party that has seen a series of high-profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal, Ashwani Kumar and Sunil Jakhar, in the recent past, Azad wrote a no-holds-barred letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, detailing his grievances.

    ALSO READ | Exits of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal leave G-23 change seekers in disarray

    Azad’s exit comes months after another “Group of 23” (G-23) leader, Sibal, resigned from the party and filed his nomination as a Samajwadi Party-backed independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh.

    He was elected to the Upper House of Parliament in June.

    The G-23 members had written to Sonia Gandhi, seeking organisational reforms, in 2020.

    The Congress has failed to stem the exodus of leaders despite the promise of reforms, including structural changes and prominence to youngsters, at its brainstorming session in Rajasthan’s Udaipur in May.

    Two influential leaders — Sunil Jakhar and Hardik Patel — quit the party in quick succession this year.

    Jakhar, a former Punjab Congress chief with ties with the party spanning three generations, quit even as the party’s Chintan Shivir was on in May.

    Patel, a young leader who came into prominence with the Patidar quota agitation in Gujarat, was elevated as the working president of the state unit in July 2020 as part of efforts to strengthen the organisation and strongly take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its stronghold.

    He subsequently quit the Congress and launched a scathing attack on its leadership.

    FROM OUR ARCHIVES | Disgruntled with Gandhis? Ghulam Nabi Azad readies to do an Amarinder in J&K ahead of polls

    The Congress is seen making little effort to woo its leaders back and Rahul Gandhi has been saying for quite some time in party forums that anyone who succumbs to the pressure of the BJP in this “fight for ideology” is free to leave.

    Earlier this week, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill quit the party, alleging that sycophancy is eating into the organisation like “termites”.

    In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Shergill resigned as the party’s national spokesperson, saying the primary reason behind his decision was that “the ideology and the vision of the current decision makers of the Congress is no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth and a modern India”.

    Earlier this year, RPN Singh, a former Union minister, a CWC member and the son of late Congress leader CPN Singh, joined the ranks of Jitin Prasada and Jyotiraditya Scindia, both CWC members who quit the party to join the BJP over the last couple of years.

    While Prasada is the son of Jitendra Prasada, Scindia’s father was Madhavrao Scindia, both Congress veterans.

    Singh’s exit came just months after Sushmita Dev, another young Congress leader and the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, quit the party to join the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).

    The story of senior leaders leaving the Congress began ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the party lost Haryana heavyweights Birender Singh and Rao Inderjit Singh.

    Both went on to become ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first cabinet.

    There have been other examples as well.

    Former Assam Congress stalwart Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the BJP in 2015 and climbed the saffron ladder to become the chief minister of the state.

    Some other prominent Congress leaders and former ministers in the UPA government who quit the party and joined the BJP are S M Krishna and Jayanti Natarajan.

    Krishna is a former Karnataka chief minister and Natarajan was the Union environment minister during the UPA regime.

    The Congress also lost once Gandhi family loyalist and the scion of the erstwhile Amethi royal family, Sanjay Sinh, to the BJP last year.

    Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane and then leader of opposition in the state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil quit the party to join the BJP in 2019.

    The Congress also suffered a jolt in Assam in 2019 when its chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Bhubaneswar Kalita, joined the BJP.

    He is now a Rajya Sabha member from the state.

    Also in the northeast, the Congress suffered setbacks when its former chief minister in Manipur N Biren Singh joined the BJP in 2016, citing differences with then incumbent Ibobi Singh.

    In Arunachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Pema Khandu left the Congress in 2016 before the Assembly polls.

    In Uttar Pradesh too, ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, former state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi quit the party.

    Other prominent faces who left the Congress in the recent past include Tamil actor Khushboo Sundar and former Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan, both of whom joined the BJP.

    While the leaders quitting the Congress have cited various reasons, from not being heard by the leadership to leaving for better prospects, the party has repeatedly called out their weak ideological moorings.

    NEW DELHI: The exodus of senior Congress leaders, once seen as mainstays of the party, continues unabated with Ghulam Nabi Azad jumping on the “leave Congress” bandwagon at a time when the party is struggling to shore up its dwindling electoral fortunes.

    Several leaders, many of them part of the party’s highest decision-making body Congress Working Committee (CWC), have exited recently, citing reasons ranging from the party’s lack of ground-level presence to its leadership’s shortcomings.

    Azad resigned from the party on Friday ahead of the organisational polls, terming the Congress “comprehensively destroyed” and accusing the leadership of committing “fraud” on the party in the name of “sham” internal elections.

    Delivering another blow to the embattled party that has seen a series of high-profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal, Ashwani Kumar and Sunil Jakhar, in the recent past, Azad wrote a no-holds-barred letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, detailing his grievances.

    ALSO READ | Exits of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal leave G-23 change seekers in disarray

    Azad’s exit comes months after another “Group of 23” (G-23) leader, Sibal, resigned from the party and filed his nomination as a Samajwadi Party-backed independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh.

    He was elected to the Upper House of Parliament in June.

    The G-23 members had written to Sonia Gandhi, seeking organisational reforms, in 2020.

    The Congress has failed to stem the exodus of leaders despite the promise of reforms, including structural changes and prominence to youngsters, at its brainstorming session in Rajasthan’s Udaipur in May.

    Two influential leaders — Sunil Jakhar and Hardik Patel — quit the party in quick succession this year.

    Jakhar, a former Punjab Congress chief with ties with the party spanning three generations, quit even as the party’s Chintan Shivir was on in May.

    Patel, a young leader who came into prominence with the Patidar quota agitation in Gujarat, was elevated as the working president of the state unit in July 2020 as part of efforts to strengthen the organisation and strongly take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its stronghold.

    He subsequently quit the Congress and launched a scathing attack on its leadership.

    FROM OUR ARCHIVES | Disgruntled with Gandhis? Ghulam Nabi Azad readies to do an Amarinder in J&K ahead of polls

    The Congress is seen making little effort to woo its leaders back and Rahul Gandhi has been saying for quite some time in party forums that anyone who succumbs to the pressure of the BJP in this “fight for ideology” is free to leave.

    Earlier this week, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill quit the party, alleging that sycophancy is eating into the organisation like “termites”.

    In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Shergill resigned as the party’s national spokesperson, saying the primary reason behind his decision was that “the ideology and the vision of the current decision makers of the Congress is no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth and a modern India”.

    Earlier this year, RPN Singh, a former Union minister, a CWC member and the son of late Congress leader CPN Singh, joined the ranks of Jitin Prasada and Jyotiraditya Scindia, both CWC members who quit the party to join the BJP over the last couple of years.

    While Prasada is the son of Jitendra Prasada, Scindia’s father was Madhavrao Scindia, both Congress veterans.

    Singh’s exit came just months after Sushmita Dev, another young Congress leader and the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, quit the party to join the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).

    The story of senior leaders leaving the Congress began ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the party lost Haryana heavyweights Birender Singh and Rao Inderjit Singh.

    Both went on to become ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first cabinet.

    There have been other examples as well.

    Former Assam Congress stalwart Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the BJP in 2015 and climbed the saffron ladder to become the chief minister of the state.

    Some other prominent Congress leaders and former ministers in the UPA government who quit the party and joined the BJP are S M Krishna and Jayanti Natarajan.

    Krishna is a former Karnataka chief minister and Natarajan was the Union environment minister during the UPA regime.

    The Congress also lost once Gandhi family loyalist and the scion of the erstwhile Amethi royal family, Sanjay Sinh, to the BJP last year.

    Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane and then leader of opposition in the state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil quit the party to join the BJP in 2019.

    The Congress also suffered a jolt in Assam in 2019 when its chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Bhubaneswar Kalita, joined the BJP.

    He is now a Rajya Sabha member from the state.

    Also in the northeast, the Congress suffered setbacks when its former chief minister in Manipur N Biren Singh joined the BJP in 2016, citing differences with then incumbent Ibobi Singh.

    In Arunachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Pema Khandu left the Congress in 2016 before the Assembly polls.

    In Uttar Pradesh too, ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, former state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi quit the party.

    Other prominent faces who left the Congress in the recent past include Tamil actor Khushboo Sundar and former Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan, both of whom joined the BJP.

    While the leaders quitting the Congress have cited various reasons, from not being heard by the leadership to leaving for better prospects, the party has repeatedly called out their weak ideological moorings.

  • Congress Working Committee meeting underway to discuss poll debacle

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is underway to discuss the party’s crushing defeat in Assembly elections in five states. The meeting is being held at the party’s 24, Akbar Road office in the national capital.

    Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram, Harish Rawat, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal are present in the meeting.

    Among other top leaders present in the meet include Chhattishgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Shaktisinh Gohil, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Rajiv Shukla, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tewari.

    Ahead of the meeting, the dissident group within the party, G23, had suggested Mukul Wasnik for the post of president of the party, which was not accepted, sources said.

    Sources said, “G23, which consists of Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, had suggested Mukul Wasnik’s name for the post of president of the party. But it was not accepted.”The source, who is a part of G23, also said that the new party president should lead the party in the manner as was done by Sonia Gandhi in early 2000.

    “Though Sonia Gandhi is the (interim) president, it is virtually (being) run by KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken and Randeep Surjewala. There is no accountability fixed on them. Rahul Gandhi is not the president. But he operates from behind the scene and takes decisions. He does not communicate openly. We are party’s well-wishers and not enemies,” added the source.

    The results of five assembly polls came as a shock to the Congress which was hoping to do well to revive its prospects for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and to fend off the emerging challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress to replace it as the fulcrum of anti-BJP politics in the country.

  • CWC meeting: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi slams Centre’s ‘sell it all’ initiative

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday accused the NDA government of selling the country’s interest and leaving the people to fend for themselves amid rising commodity prices.

    “Becho, becho, becho (sell, sell sell)! This is what Prime Minister Modi’s government is doing in the country by putting the economy in jeopardy. Farm laws, inflation, security and many other issues pertaining to the nation’s well-being have gone beyond the control of the government, leaving the people fending for themselves and their survival,” she said at the first in-person meeting of the Congress Working Committee after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Launching a scathing attack on the National Demoratic Alliance government headed by BJP, she said: “There has always been a broad consensus on foreign and neighbourhood policies in our country. But that consensus has been damaged because of the prime minister’s continued reluctance to take the Opposition into confidence in any meaningful manner.”

    Sonia lashed out at the Central government on its foreign policy and stated that this has become a ‘diabolical’ instrument of electoral mobilisation and polarisation.

    “Of late, we are facing serious challenges at our borders and other fronts also. But the prime minister told the nation that there was no occupation of our territory by China. Since then, the prime minister’s silence has been intriguing and costing our nation dearly,” Sonia alleged, adding that to rescue the country Congress needs to work in united manner.

    Calm after last year’s storm

    NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee meeting on Saturday was a sedate affair compared to the turbulence witnessed at the virtual meeting held last year.  In 2020, there were accusations, threats and other upheavals. Sonia Gandhi got fed up and offered to quit.

    This time, there was no acrimony. Those who wanted put forward their views in the party’s interest, said insiders.

  • Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Cong slams PM Modi for not removing Union minister despite son’s arrest

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday said the “brutal” mowing down of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri was a manifestation of the government’s continuing “arrogance” and slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not removing the Union minister whose son has been arrested in connection with the incident.

    The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, in a resolution alleged that the last seven years have witnessed a “diabolical design” to attack the livelihood of ‘annadatas’ and landless farm labourers.

    Referring to the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people died, four of them farmers allegedly knocked down by a vehicle carrying BJP workers, the CWC said that “the brutal mowing down of farmers is a manifestation of the continuing arrogance”.

    “This incident was preceded by the Union minister (of state) for home affairs, himself an accused in a case of murder in which the high court has reserved judgment for 43 months, publicly threatening the farmers with dire consequences, while flaunting his own dubious antecedents,” the Congress said.

    Despite his son having been accused and arrested under relentless public pressure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi “shamelessly” refuses to remove Ajay Mishra as Union minister of state for home affairs, it said.

    On October 3, after the four farmers were knocked down, infuriated people then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles.

    The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver.

    In the incident, a journalist was also killed.

    Farmers claimed that Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and his father who say they can produce evidence to prove he was at an event at that time.

    Ashish Mishra ‘Monu’ was arrested in the case on October 9 after 12 hours of questioning, and a court has accepted his police custody from October 12 to October 15.

    In its resolution, the Congress said it is committed to the repeal of the three farm laws and ensuring a just and fair minimum support price mechanism for India’s farmers as well as justice for landless farm labourers.

    “We reiterate our continued resolve to fight this battle alongside farmers and farm labourers to defeat the Modi government’s deliberate attack on India’s ‘annadatas’,” the CWC said.

    The party alleged that the “attack” on farmers began with a sinister design to deny the land acquisition compensation guaranteed by the Congress led-UPA through an Act of Parliament.

    This was followed by a refusal to provide any form of relief from agricultural indebtedness, a dilution of the norms for crop compensation and the framing of a convoluted crop insurance scheme which singularly benefitted select insurance companies instead of the suffering farmers, the resolution said.

    Agriculture was subjected to unjustifiable levels of taxation by imposing Goods and Services Tax (GST) on fertiliser (five per cent), pesticides (18 per cent) and tractors and agricultural equipment (12 per cent-18 per cent), it said.

    Meanwhile, fertilizer, seed and pesticide prices skyrocketed, the resolution pointed out.

    This was compounded by astronomical increase in diesel prices that are touching an unprecedented Rs 100 per litre and have even surpassed the Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities across the country, the resolution said.

    All these retrograde and outright anti-farmer measures, including excessive taxation by the Modi government, have placed an additional burden of Rs. 20,000-25,000 per hectare on agriculture, it claimed.

    “The plight of India’s farmers can be gauged from the NSSO report, which highlights that the average income per day of the small and marginal farmer is a pittance of Rs 26.67/ day. And the average debt is Rs 72,000 per farmer. The average income per day is way below even the minimum daily wage for labour,” the resolution stated.

    For over ten and a half months, lakhs of farmers have been protesting peacefully on Delhi’s borders, blocked by spikes and boulders on the national highway from advancing further, it said.

    The CWC also noted the “courage and consistency” with which Rahul Gandhi has fought for the cause of farmers and the “resilience” of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in fighting the onslaught on farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

    In another resolution on the political situation in the country, the CWC said the tragic incident at Lakhimpur Kheri is a clear example of official support to the attempt to suppress the voice of the farmers.

    The refusal of the prime minister to condemn the brutal murder of the farmers and to sack the minister of state for home affairs have shocked the conscience of the country, it said.

  • BJP mocks CWC as ‘parivar bachao working committee’, slams it for not reacting to Singhu killing

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The BJP on Saturday mocked the Congress Working Committee meeting as “parivar bachao working committee” and alleged that it offered no answers to the issues of the party’s internal rift and its leadership’s failures, and instead indulged in spreading lies.

    BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia also criticised the CWC for not reacting to the ghastly murder of a Dalit man at the Singhu border, one of the sites for the farmers’ protests, and questioned if the opposition party stood with the “Talibani mindset” behind the killing.

    Anarchic elements are using farmers for their politics, he said.

    “For the sake of petty and cheap vote bank politics, opposition parties, especially the Congress, will maintain deafening silence on this key issue. They will not have courage to call spade a spade because it does not suit their political narrative,” Bhatia said while also attacking farmer leader Rakesh Tikait for his reported remarks that organisers cannot be blamed for such a incident.

    ​ALSO READ | I’m full-time, hands-on Congress president: Sonia Gandhi’s message to ‘G23’ at CWC meet

    Taking a swipe at Sonia Gandhi over her assertion that she was a “full time and hands on” Congress chief, he noted her status as the interim president of the organisation and the demand of the group of disaffected party members, referred to as G-23, that it should have a full time head.

    “It will not be wrong to say that it was less a Congress Working Committee and more a parivar bachao working committee (save family working committee),” he said, alleging that Gandhi’s opening remarks did not touch on a host of issues facing the party and left unanswered people’s questions about Congress-run governments in different states.

    The Congress again advanced the politics of lies and spreading confusion, he said, in an apparent reference to her attack on the Modi government over a host of issues, including three “black (farm) laws”, killings in Jammu and Kashmir, Lakhimpur Kheri violence and the state of the economy.

    ALSO READ | Singhu border lynching: Victim’s family says he was ‘god-fearing’, demands high-level probe

    Bhatia cited the police lathi-charge on a group of protesting farmers in the Congress-ruled states of Punjab and Rajasthan and also noted that a law on contract farming brought in by Punjab says that farmers can be arrested for breaking the agreement.

    This is what a black law is, and the Congress president should ensure that it is withdrawn, he said.

    The BJP spokesperson also took a dig at her for the part of her statement in which she is noting that all CWC are now doubly vaccinated, paving the way for its first physical meeting since the COVID-19 outbreak, as he noted the opposition party’s trenchant criticism of the Modi government’s vaccination policies.

    The Congress should offer words of thanks to scientists and doctors when 100 crore doses of vaccines are completed in a few days, he added.

    Bhatia also criticised Gandhi for not visiting her Lok Sabha constituency of Rai Bareli for over 21 months, alleging that she has been a failure as a MP.

  • Every Congress member wants revival, but that requires unity: Sonia Gandhi at CWC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: In an apparent message to the G23, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said she is a full-time, hands-on party president and there is no need for leaders to speak to her through the media.

    Her remarks came days after Kapil Sibal, one of the leaders of the group of 23 who had written to Sonia Gandhi for organisational overhaul last year, demanded that an immediate meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) be convened and wondered who in the party was taking decisions in the absence of a full-time president.

    In her opening remarks at the CWC meeting, Gandhi asserted that every member of the party wants a revival of the Congress, but that requires unity and keeping the party’s interests paramount.

    “Above all, it requires self-control and discipline,” she added.

    Recalling that the Congress had finalised a roadmap for electing a regular Congress chief by June 30 but that deadline was extended indefinitely due to Covid second wave, Sonia Gandhi said that today was the occasion for bringing clarity once and for all on the issue of the organisational polls.

    A schedule for full-fledged organizational elections had been put before the CWC members, she said.

    “I am, if you will allow me to say so, a full-time and hands-on Congress president,” Gandhi said, which is seen by many as a response to Sibal’s comments last month.

    Sonia Gandhi also asserted that she has always appreciated frankness and there was no need to speak to her through the media.

    “So let us all have a free and honest discussion. But what should get communicated outside the four walls of this room is the collective decision of the CWC,” she said.

    Sonia Gandhi, former chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress chief ministers Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh and Charanjit Channi of Punjab attended the meeting.

    Senior leaders and G23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma were among those present at the meeting at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here.