Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, Oommen Chandy, AK Antony, Jairam Ramesh, VC Venugopal are part of Kharge's Steering Committee.
AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge with Sonia Gandhi. File Photo.
Newly-appointed All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday, 26 October, appointed a Steering Committee to supervise party affairs.
With all the office bearers of AICC, including general secretaries and state in-charges turning tendering resignations as per procedure following the election of a new president, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will have to be freshly formed.
Until the time the party forms its new CWC — either by electoral process or appointment by Kharge — the Steering Committee will manage party affairs. Most of office bearers, including state in-charges, have been retained in the Steering Committee and asked to continue with their responsibilities.
“The Steering Committee is a stop-gap arrangement under the party Constitution until the time CWC is formed once again. An AICC session will be held where members will be elected or selected — that decision will lie with the president. The process might take around two months,” Steering Committee member Manickam Tagore told South First.
Tagore will continue to discharge his duties as in-charge of Telangana and assist in the Bharat Jodo Yatra as it resumes in the State on Thursday.
While Kharge has included most CWC members in the Steering Committee, Kuljith Singh Nagra and Vivek Bansal have been dropped.
Steering committee includes Sonia Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, among others.
Oommen Chandy, AK Antony, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Dr A Chella Kumar, Dinesh Gundu Rao, HK Patil, KH Muniyappa, B Manickam Tagore and T Subbirami Reddy are the names from southern states in the steering committee.
The committee also includes Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken, Anand Sharma, Avinash Pande, Gaikhangam, Harish Rawat, Jitendra Singh, Kumari Selja, Lalthanhawla, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, Raghubeer Meena, Tariq Anwar, Dr Ajoy Kumar, Bhakta Charan Das, Devendra Yadav, Digvijaya Singh, Harish Chaudary, Jai Prakash Agarwal, Manish Chatrath, Meira Kumar, PL Punia, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Pramod Tiwari, Rajani Patil, Dr Raghu Sharma, Rajeev Shukla, Salman Khurshid, Shaktisinh Gohil and Tariq Hamid Karra.
The Steering Committee will have to draft resolutions for the next Congress session after taking due note of recommendations by the Pradesh Congress Committees.
Shashi Tharoor — contender for the AICC president’s post — in his manifesto had promised elections to CWC instead of appointments,
Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to take a call on whether he would hold elections for CWC members or appoint them directly.
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