Kharge unveils 84-member CWC: G-23, youth find prominence; Pilot, Tharoor inducted

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon/Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, August 20

The Congress on Sunday unveiled an all-inclusive 84-member working committee giving prominence to youth and leaders from election bound states and inducting dissidents including Lok Sabha MP Shashi Thaoor who contested against party president Mallikarjun Kharge in the October 2022 Congress chief's election and Sachin Pilot from Rajasthan who revolted against his own government in 2020.

While veteran G23 leaders Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik and Shashi Tharoor who articulated the need for intra party reforms have been made regular CWC members among 39, Manish Tewari and Veerappa Moily have been inducted afresh as permanent invitees among 18.

Anand Sharma and Wasnik have been retained (they were part of the 49-member steering committee Kharge had formed in the interim before he finalised the CWC) while Tharoor, Tewari and Moily are new entries to the CWC.

The new list features Congress top brass, Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra, Ambika Soni, AK Antony, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh among others, as regular members.

Other fresh entries in the regular CWC segment are former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, former Punjab CM Charanjit Channi, N Raghuveera Reddy, senior OBC leader from poll-bound Chhattisgarh Tamradhwaj Sahu, former Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot, senior Gujarat leader Jagdish Thakor, GA Mir from J&K,

Deepa Dasmunshi from West Bengal, and MPs Gaurav Gogoi and Syed Naseer Hussein among others.

Former Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh’s wife, Mandi MP Pratibha Singh has been made a new permanent invitee.

Other leaders to be inducted afresh in the CWC as permanent invitees are Veerappa Moily, Mohan Prakash, Ramesh Chennithala, BK Hariprasad, Manish Tewari, Rahul Gandhi's close aides K Raju and Meenakshi Natarajan, MP Phulo Devi Netam and Kharge's confidante Gurdeep Sappal.

The list of nine special CWC invitees include senior Andhra Pradesh Congress leader Pallam Raju, AICC media chief Pawan Khera, former Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal, MP K Suresh, Yashomati Thakur, and prominent Congress spokespersons Supriya Shrinate and Alka Lamba, along with former union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's daughter Priniti Shinde.

Prominent leaders who have been dropped are Raghuvir Singh Meena from Rajasthan, Dinesh Gundurao, KH Muniyappa and HK Patil from Karnataka (all state ministers in Karnataka now), Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia and Raghu Sharma.

The new CWC has 39 regular members, 18 permanent invitees, 14 state in-charges, 9 special invitees, 4 ex officio members.

About The Author

Tribune News Service

The Tribune News Service brings you the latest news, analysis and insights from the region, India and around the world. Follow the Tribune News Service for a wide-ranging coverage of events as they unfold, with perspective and clarity.

#Charanjit Channi #Congress #Lok Sabha #Mallikarjun Kharge #Pratibha Singh