• By Mayukh Debnath
  • Mon, 21 Aug 2023 07:09 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday reconstituted the party's working committee. The move comes ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled to take place towards the end of this year in five states - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana. Since last year, the party had been functioning with a steering committee, instead of a working committee, at its helm.

A list of the members of the newly appointed Congress Working Committee (CWC) was shared by the party on social media handle X (formerly Twitter). Besides Kharge, the list includes the names of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Congress's leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It is noteworthy that Sachin Pilot's name also figured in the list. Pilot's long-running rivalry with fellow Congress leader and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been a matter of unease for the grand old party in poll-bound Rajasthan.

Other prominent Congress leaders who have been appointed as members of the CWC include AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Digvijay Singh, P Chidambaram, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Kurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Ajay Maken.

Several members of the now-disbanded 'G-23' have also been drafted to the CWC as members, including Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor and Mukul Wasnik. The G-23 was a grouping of dissident senior Congress leaders which was formed in 2021 to demand organisational overhaul. 

Former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and ex-Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar have also been placed on the all-important decision-making panel of the Congress party.

The list shared by Congress also carried the names of party leaders who have been appointed general secretaries, and permanent and speciall invitees. Former union ministers Veerappa Moily and Manish Tiwari, both G23 members, along with former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, have been made permament invitees.

Several other notable Congress leaders like Pawan Khera, Supriya Shrinate, and Alka Lamba have been made special invitees.

Ex-JNU President Kanhaiya Kumar also found place in the panel, alongside the likes of Gaurav Gogoi and KC Venugopal, as party general secretary.