First time in Congress history, no CWC for over seven months now

New Delhi: For the first time in the history of the country’s oldest political party, the reconstitution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, has been delayed by over seven months now.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge dissolved the CWC on October 26 last year as per the Article XV (b) of the party’s constitution and set up the Steering Committee in its place.

Also read: How Mallikarjun Kharge stumbled at the very outset?

Kharge was elected as the Congress president on October 19 last year after he defeated Shashi Tharoor by over 6000 votes. While Kharge bagged 7897 votes, Tharoor polled 1072 and 416 votes were declared invalid. Seven days later, he dissolved the CWC. The 85th plenary session of the party was held at Raipur in Chhattisgarh on February 25 and 26 this year. At this session, Kharge was authorised by the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates to nominate the CWC.  

As per the Congress constitution, 12 of the 25 CWC members must be elected by AICC delegates and the rest are nominated by the Congress president.

The CWC has not seen an election in almost 26 years now. The last time there were elections to the CWC was in 1997 during the Kolkata plenary. Prior to that, the CWC polls took place in 1992 at the Tirupati session.

It is over seven months now that the grand old party’s highest decision-making body has not been reconstituted since its dissolution in October and five months after the Raipur plenary.  

During the last organisational elections in 2018, the CWC was replaced by the steering committee on February 16. The CWC was finally formed on July 17 same year after a gap of five months from its dissolution and three months after the plenary. The 84th plenary session was then held in Delhi on March 17 and 18.

In 2010, the CWC was replaced by the steering committee ahead of the 83rd plenary session on December 19 and 20 at Burari on the outskirts of Delhi. The CWC was reconstituted nearly two months later, on March 4, 2011.