Kharge goes for CWC rejig; Tharoor, Pilot in

New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday constituted a new Congress Working Committee (CWC), inducting senior party leaders Shashi Tharoor and Sachin Pilot in the reshuffle of the top decision-making body. The CWC was formed months after Kharge became the president of the grand old party on October 10 last year. It replaces the steering committee that was formed as a stop-gap arrangement. While there are a total of 39 members on the panel, the CWC has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.

Former Congress chiefs Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary have been included in the new CWC.

Pilot has also found a place in the committee ahead of the Assembly elections in the state later this year. The party has been trying to placate the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister. Tharoor, who contested against Kharge in the presidential elections last year, Deepa Das Munshi and Syed Nasser Hussain are the new entrants to the CWC. Munshi is a former MP from West Bengal and the wife of veteran party leader and former Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. Hussain is a Rajya Sabha member who has earlier served as Congress' national media panelist.

Earlier this year, party's general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal had said half of the party’s officer-bearers should be under 50. Only three — Sachin Pilot, Gourav Gogoi and Kamaleshwar Patel — of the total 39 CWC members are under 50 years of age. The members have been nominated by the party president and not picked through an election. In February, the Congress' steering committee had said that it was unanimously decided to authorise Kharge to nominate all CWC members.

Other notable inclusions in the core CWC include former finance minister P. Chidambaram, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, former Union ministers Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid, former Madhya chief minister Digvijaya Singh, former Speaker Meira Kumar, former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Lok Sabha member Gaurav Gogoi, Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and K.C. Venugopal.

Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari, senior leader from Kerala Ramesh Chennithala, and bureaucrat-turned-politician and close aide of Gandhi K. Raju have been made permanent invitees, along with Kodikunil Suresh, Priniti Shinde, Deependra Hooda, Veerappa Moily and Harish Rawat.  Younger leaders Alka Lamba, Supriya Shrinate and Pawan Khera have been made special invitees, while Kanhaiya Kumar is in the CWC as the in-charge of the students’ wing.