NEW DELHI, Oct 26: New Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who formally took over the party’s top post on Wednesday, replaced the longstanding CWC with a ‘Steering Committee’ comprising most of the top party leaders but only Lal Thanhawla from the entire Northeastern states as a member.
The 47-members committee has past president Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh and former VP Rahul Gandhi besides Priyanka Gandhi as well. The committee will function in place of the Congress’s Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, and function till the plenary session is held.
New members of the working committee will be chosen at the next AICC (All India Congress Committee) session.
This morning, all the members of the Congress Working Committee stepped down. This is part of the convention when a new chief is elected, to enable him to choose his team.
“All the CWC members, AICC general secretaries and in-charges have tendered their resignation to Congress president,” said AICC general secretary Organisation, KC Venugopal.
All the office-bearers — general secretaries and in-charges — have now been included in the Steering Committee.
Kharge has maintained that he believes in collective leadership and will consult Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, if needed. Elected earlier this month, Kharge had said he would implement the Udaipur Declaration, and try to address problems of youth, farmers, women and small traders.
Considering as many as eight states in the North East, it was expected that few leaders from the region will find a place in the rechristened committee. Congress was ruling in most of the Northeastern states but could not retain even a single one till date after BJP-led NDA came back to power for a second term.
