Rahul Gandhi Reconstitutes CWC, Key States Left Unrepresented

July 18, 2018 13:09

(Image source from: TheIndianExpress.Com)

Rahul Gandhi Reconstitutes CWC, Key States Left Unrepresented:- Rahul Gandhi after seven months of taking charge as Indian National Congress party president, on Tuesday he reconstituted the Congress Working Committee, its top policy-making body.

Abandoning mother Sonia Gandhi's cautious approach, he has opted for a mix of the young and old-Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and Deepender Hooda are among those who have been inducted while veterans like Digvijaya Singh, C P Joshi, Janardan Dwivedi, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Oscar Fernandes have been shown the door.

None of the three Congress chief ministers find a place in the CWC. Bihar, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh too stay unrepresented.

Rahul Gandhi has too expanded the CWC, increasing the number of lasting and peculiar invitees. The strength of the new body is 51-23 main members, 18 permanent invitees, and 10 special invitees.

While Scindia has been brought in as a permanent invitee, former Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Arun Yadav, former Union minister Jitin Prasada, Lok Sabha MP Deepender Hooda and Haryana leader Kuldeep Vishnoi have been inducted as special invitees. Hopefuls like Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khurshid have been left out. This is a departure from the past because Sonia Gandhi had shied away from inducting new blood.

The new members are a mix of young and old leaders. In other words, many of those considered close to Sonia as well as those with proximity to Rahul find a place. The new members include veterans like Gogoi, Siddaramaiah, Kumari Selja, Raghuveer Meena, Tamradhwaj Sahu and former Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam Gangmei.

Key states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, West Bengal and Goa are unrepresented. These states together have 121 Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress wants 33 percent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. Rahul Gandhi has often spoken about empowerment of women and giving them more representation in the organization. But only three women-Sonia Gandhi, Ambika Soni and Kumari Selja-find place in the 23-member main CWC. Dikshit, Asha Kumari, Rajni Patil and Sushmita Dev are among the permanent and special invitees. While Kumari and Patil are AICC in-charges, Dev is president of Mahila Congress.

Only three Muslims have been included in the CWC.

The first meeting of the new CWC has been convened on July 22.

The CWC was dissolved in February and the earlier panel was transformed into a steering committee for holding the party’s plenary session that concluded in March. Senior leader Anand Sharma was inducted into the steering committee then and has now been inducted as a member of the CWC.