7 months and counting, Mallikarjun Kharge still without leadership teams

Even as Mallikarjun Kharge has been the Congress president for over seven months, he still remains without a Congress Working Committee (CWC) team and AICC secretariat. This, even after the February Raipur AICC plenary session ratified his election and authorised him to nominate a new CWC team.

Instead, Kharge is ‘soldiering on’ with an ad hoc arrangement at 24-Akbar Road, comprising a defunct ‘steering committee’ and a team of nominated AICC general secretaries, which he inherited from the Sonia Gandhi presidency.

The unusual delay in nominating new CWC and AICC teams has led to a palpable sense of uneasiness and uncertainty among the Congress leaders. It has also led to increasing whispers of hectic lobbying by various groups for CWC berths and AICC posts to controll internal power equations. So far, all that Kharge has done is meeting some contingencies through piecemeal appointments, of one AICC general secretary, two AICC incharges and a few PCC chiefs, while sitting on the restructuring.


Congress insiders said the discussions on the contours of new CWC/AICC secretariate teams “are progressing” with due sensitivity to the views of the Gandhi family, especially Rahul Gandhi, who is currently abroad with his mother. They hoped Kharge will announce his CWC and AICC teams soon.

The delay also means that the much-talked about (Udaipur chintan shivir-inspired) reforms and amendments to the Congress constitution made at the Raipur plenary session, including term cap, 50% quota for SC-ST-OBC, women, minorities and increasing the strength of the CWC, too remain unimplemented right at the echelons of leadership in the party.

More importantly, the sight of a Congress president without his own CWC/AICC teams has also led to chatter within the Congress circles that far from consolidating his presidency and authority, Kharge has chosen to play safe to the extent of being labelled as “dithering”, if not indecisive.

While Kharge has been trying to register the presence of his presidency through regular tweets and sound bites against the Modi dispensation, he also made it a point to pair with Rahul Gandhi when it comes to holding important meetings — be it interacting with non-Congress Opposition leaders, discussing poll preparation of MP Congress or internal issues of Rajasthan Congress. This despite the Congress constitution having no clause on conferring any special privileges/role in decision-making to former Congress presidents (other than the recent Raipur session granting them, along with Congress Ex-PMs, permanent slots in the CWC).

“Adhocism is the new normal for us. Didn’t the Congress function without a regular president for more than three years till mid 2022? So why can’t we prepare for fighting Modi and BJP in elections without a proper organisational team at the top,” quipped a senior Congress leader.