With an eye on the upcoming Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday reconstituted Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest-decision making body which includes senior party leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Syed Naseer Hussain, Sachin Pilot, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several others.

The new CWC was announced almost 10 months after Kharge became the Congress president in October last year.

Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, who was part of the ‘G23’ Group and sought wide-ranging reforms in the party and contested for the party chief’s post against Mallikarjun Kharge, finds place in the new CWC.

Sachin Pilot has been included in the 39-member panel, which is being seen as a move to placate the popular leader ahead of Rajasthan polls.

Sachin Pilot had led the mutiny against the Ashok Gehlot government in 2020, after which he was removed as Deputy Chief Minister and Rajasthan Congress chief.

The inclusion of Sachin Pilot into the new CWC came just months ahead of the crucial assembly polls in Rajasthan.

The new CWC includes 39 general members. It has 32 permanent invitees including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees. The list also includes presidents of the Youth Congress, the National Students’ Union of India, the Mahila Congress and the Seva Dal as ex-officio members.

Under the formula of 50 per cent under 50 years, leaders like Sachin Pilot, K Patel and Gaurav Gogoi have found their place under this formula.

Supriya Shrinate, Alka Lamba, Deepender Hooda, Priniti Shinde, Yashomati Thakur, Jothimani and others have been included too under the same formula.

In a statement, the Congress said, “Congress President has constituted the CWC.”

Besides Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, veteran party leaders AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Digvijay Singh, P Chidambaram, Tariq Anwar, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala, and Ajay Maken have been named as CWC members.

The new CWC also includes the name of former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

The 39-member CWC list also includes the names of party leaders Lal Thanhawla, Ashokrao Chavan, Gaikhangam, N Raghuveera Reddy, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Kurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Jitendra Singh, Deepak Babaria, Jagdish Thakor, GA Mir, Avinash Pande, Deepa Das Munshi, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Gogoi, Kamaleshwar Patel and KC Venugopal.

Besides, the party has named Veerappa Moily, Harish Rawat, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mohan Prakash, Ramesh Chennithala, BK Hariprasad, Prathiba Singh, Manish Tewari, Tariq Hameed Karra, Deepender Singh Hooda, Girish Raya Chodankar, T Subbarami Reddy, K Raju, Chandrakant Handore, Meenakshi Natarajan, Phulo Devi Netam, Damodar Raja Narasimha and Sudeep Roy Burman as permanent invitees.

The party has included Pallam Raju, Khera, Ganesh Godkhal, Kodikkunil Suresh, Yashomati Thakur, Shrinate, Shinde, Lamba and Vamshi Chand Reddy as special invitees.

State incharges A Chellakumar, Bhakta Charan Das, Ajoy Kumar, Harish Choudhary, Rajeev Shukla, Manickam Tagore, Sukhvinder Randhawa, Manickrao Thakre, Rajani Patel, Kanhaiya Kumar, Gurdeep Sappal, Sachin Rao, Devender Yadav and Manish Chatrath have also found place.

While, other new entrants to the panel include Deepa Das Munshi and Syed Naseer Hussain. Das Munshi is a former MP from West Bengal and the wife of veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister late Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.

Meanwhile, Congress MPs Sashi Tharoor and Syed Naseer Hussain have expressed gratitude to the party’s central leadership after they were appointed as members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) — the party’s highest decision making body.

“I am honoured by the decision of the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge ji and the Congress central leadership to nominate me to the Working Committee. As one who is aware of the historic role played by the CWC in guiding the party over the last 138 years, I am humbled and grateful to be part of this institution, and look forward to the opportunity to serve the party alongside my dedicated colleagues,” he wrote on X.

The MP from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram added, “None of us can accomplish anything without the lakhs of committed workers who are the lifeblood of the party. Today, above all, I bow to them. The countless Indians who seek a more inclusive and accepting India deserve the best from us.”

Hussain also took to X and wrote, “A humbling moment and huge thanks and gratitude to the Congress leadership President Mallikarjun Kharge Ji, Former Presidents — Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji for this opportunity given to me to serve the party as a CWC member.”

After being inducted into the new CWC, Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot pledged to “strengthen the customs and ideology” of the party.

In a tweet on X, Pilot thanked the senior party leaders for the decision and
said, “I express my gratitude to respected Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former President Rahul Gandhi for making me a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). We all will strengthen the customs and ideology of the Congress and take it more strongly to the people.”