Rahul Gandhi constitutes CWC, no place for Digvijay, Jairam

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday reconstituted the Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body with a blend of young and old leaders. The names of senior leaders Janardhan Dwivedi, Digvijay Singh and Jairam Ramesh were however missing from the list.

The new Congress Working Committee (CWC) includes 23 members, 19 permanent invitees and 9 special invitees. The committee was dissolved prior to the election of the Congress president and the earlier panel was transformed into a steering committee till the party’s plenary session that concluded in March this year.

Senior party leaders Janardhan Dwivedi, Digvijaya Singh, C.P. Joshi, B.K. Hariprasad, Jairam Ramesh and former Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde have made way for young turks like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deependra Hooda and Jitin Prasada. Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat has also been included as a member. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram has made a permanent invitee. He was earlier a member.

The first meeting of the CWC will be held on July 22. This will be the first meeting of the CWC under Mr Gandhi after assuming charge of the party.

The heads of five frontal organisations of the party — INTUC, Sewa Dal, Youth Congress, Mahila Congress and NSUI — are the part of the special invitees. State in charges have also been placed on the committee.

The newly-constituted committee includes UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Motilal Vohra, A.K. Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, Kumari Selja.

Former chief ministers Sidharammiaha, Tarun Gogoi and Oomem Chandy have also found places in the committee.

In another reshuffle in the AICC organisation, Mr Rawat has been appointed as the general secretary, in-charge of Assam, replacing Mr C.P. Joshi.