Friday, June 10 2022

At the Congress working committee meeting on Saturday, the next party leader is likely to be named. The meeting takes place in the midst of a clear divergence of views between the young leaders and the old guard of the party.

What is the Congressional Working Committee (CWC)?

The Working Committee is the “highest executive authority” of Congress and has the final say in the interpretation and application of the provisions of its constitution. According to the Congress constitution, the CWC is made up of the chairman of the party, its leader in parliament and 23 other members, 12 of whom will be elected by the All India Congress Committee (AICC, the central decision-making body of the party), and the others are appointed by the party president. The CWC technically has the power to remove or appoint the party chairman.

The CWC is usually reconstituted after the election or re-election of the President of Congress. The CWC may be reconstituted at the AICC Plenary Session following election or re-election, or after the President has been authorized by the session to reorganize it.

Follow live updates on the CWC meeting

When was the last CWC election?

In the past 50 years or so, congressional leaders recall, genuine elections have taken place only twice. On both occasions, someone outside the Nehru-Gandhi family was at the helm.

In 1992, at the AICC Plenary Session in Tirupati, the then Congress President, PV Narasimha Rao, called for elections to the CWC, hoping that his hand-picked men would win. After the election of his detractors – especially Arjun Singh, but also Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot – Rao had the entire CWC resign, saying that no SC, ST or woman had been elected. He then reconstituted the CWC and inducted Singh and Pawar in the nominated category.

CWC elections were held again in 1997 under Sitaram Kesri at the Calcutta Plenary. The count, party leaders recall, continued into the next day. Among the winners of the fierce competition produced were Ahmed Patel, Jitendra Prasada, Madhav Rao Scindia, Tariq Anwar, Pranab Mukherjee, RK Dhawan, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Pawar and Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy.

Earlier, at the Bombay Plenary in 1969, after the debilitating split in Congress, an election was averted at the last minute after Chandra Shekhar, the ethnic Young Turk, was included among the 10 candidates “elected to unanimity”. Sonia Gandhi, who became President of Congress in April 1998, has consistently appointed CWC members, promoting a culture of patronage.

And when was the last time the CWC was revamped?

The last reorganization of the CWC dates back to March 2018, three months after Rahul Gandhi took office as President of the Congress (December 2017). During the session, the AICC authorized him to reorganize the CWC.

The previous reorganization took place in March 2011, after the re-election of Sonia Gandhi in September 2010 as President of Congress. She didn’t make any drastic changes, but removed Arjun Singh and Mohsina Kidwai from the main CWC and welcomed them as permanent guests. The CWC had Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijaya Singh, Janardan Dwivedi, Oscar Fernandes, Mukul Wasnik, BK Hariprasad, Birendra Singh, Dhani Ram Shandil, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Hemo Prova Saikia and Sushila Tiria, in addition to Mukherjee and Azad. There were five vacancies.

All of the presidents of Congress have tried to get their own CWCs; in fact, no president can afford to have a critic-stuffed CWC. The party’s own constitution stipulates that only 12 of the 25 members will be elected, so the president always has the upper hand.

CWC Congress meeting at Morarji’s residence. Morarji Desai, Ashok Mehta, Nijilingappa and Hitendra Desai. (Express photo by RL Chopra)

What factors go into choosing CWC members?

It is often a mixture of loyalty to the party president and deference to regional, caste and organizational balance. However, gender balance has often been overlooked. Leaders who are seen as counterweights to particular regional satraps often find a place in the balancing act. But mass appeal or financial strength have rarely been criteria. Many popular and charismatic leaders (like YS Rajasekhar Reddy in recent times) have never been part of the CWC.

Rahul took a good four months after the AICC session to decide on his CWC. He replaced one group of the old guard with another, while keeping his faith in the third group of veterans. At the same time, he kept recruiting young faces to the party secretariat. Thus, figures such as Gaurav Gogoi, RPN Singh, Jitendra Singh and Rajeev Satav have been put in charge of key states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gujarat. A host of former young Congress leaders were conscripted into the party as secretaries to assist the general secretaries or officials. He more or less kept his promise that the old guard and the young Turks would find an equal place in his team.

Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao (far left) and others at the CWC meeting. (Express photo by RK Dayal)

Which organ of the BJP corresponds to the CWC of the Congress? How do they differ?

The main decision-making body of the BJP is the Parliamentary Council. It has 11 members hand-picked by the BJP President. Unlike the CWC, the BJP Parliamentary Council meets whenever the party needs to decide on a chief minister after state elections. It was the Parliamentary Council that decided to project Narendra Modi as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister in 2013. Although, like the CWC, it is also a decision-making body, policies have rarely been discussed in the Parliamentary Council during of the past four years.

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