NEW DELHI: Assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for the upcoming year. In view of these elections, senior leaders and those who advocated for dissent have been included in the Congress Working Committee. The decision made during the Raipur Plenary Conference to have at least half of the working committee members below 50 years of age had to be reconsidered. Chairman Mallikarjuna Kharge nominated 18 members to be elected.

Among the regular members, there are Sachin Pilot, Kamaleswar Patil from Madhya Pradesh and Assam MP Gaurav Gogoi. Among the 32 regular invitees are Dipendra Hooda, Meenakshi Natarajan, Manickam Tagore and Kanhaiya Kumar. Among the special invitees are Supriya Srinath, Praniti Shinde, Alka Lamba and Vamshi Chanda Reddy, all of whom are under 50 years of age. There are only 15 women among the 84-member working committee.

As per the decision taken in the plenary meeting held in Raipur, Chhattisgarh in February, the number of permanent members in the working committee became 39.

The composition of the Standing Committee consists of 35 members, including the Chairman, Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers, former Speakers, Parliamentary Party Leaders and Leaders of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. It was decided that out of the 35 candidates, 18 should be selected as scheduled including OBC, minority and individuals below 50 years of age. A total of 17 people were nominated.

Representatives from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana where elections are taking place have also been ensured representation in the committee. Tamradhwaj Sahu was included from Chhattisgarh in preparation for the upcoming elections.

When Sukhwinder Sukhu became the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, a disheartened Pratibha Singh was included in the committee.

Other Members include former Chief Minister of Mizoram Lal Thanhawala, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan, former Chief Minister of Punjab Charanjit Channi, former Andhra PCC President N Raghuveera Reddy, Senior OBC Leader from Chhattisgarh Tamradhwaj Sahu, Senior Leader from Gujarat Jagadish Thakur, G A Mir from Jammu and Kashmir and Deepa Das Munshi, wife of the late Priyaranjandas Munshi from West Bengal, who became permanent members.

Former Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's wife and Mandi MP Pratibha Singh, as well as Rahul Gandhi's close associates K Raju and Meenakshi Natarajan along with Kharge's confidant Gurdeep Sappal have also become regular invitees.

Senior Andhra leader Pallam Raju, AICC spokespersons Pawan Khera, Supriya Srinath and Alka Lamba as well as former Uttarakhand PCC president Ganesh Godial and Praniti Shinde, the daughter of former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are also special invitees.