NEW DELHI: Planning to make a comeback, Congress is strategically reorganizing the working committee. The arrangement is done by including MP Shashi Tharoor, who contested against Mallikarjun Kharge for the post of AICC president, and those with different views in the supreme committee of the party.

Ramesh Chennithala, who expected permanent membership, became a permanent invitee. Kodikkunnil Suresh MP was named as special invitee. KC Venugopal and AK Antony, general secretary of the organization, became permanent members again. Five Keralites became part of the committee.

The new committee has 84 members including 39 permanent members, 14 with duties, 32 permanent invitees, 9 special invitees and four heads of subsidiary organizations as ex-officio members. 15 people are women.

Sachin Pilot, who is fighting against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, has been given permanent membership. Kanhaiya Kumar from CPI was made a permanent invitee.

Prominent members of the committee include Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P Chidambaram and Ambika Soni.

Apart from them, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Ajay Maken, Jitendra Singh, Tariq Anwar, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Gaikhangam who were in the reconstituted working committee in September 2020 have been retained.

The late Oommen Chandy, Ahmed Patel, Tarun Gogoi, Ghulam Nabi Azad who left the party, Raghuveer Singh Meena from Rajasthan and regular guest former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat were left out.

The permanent members include stalwarts Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Deepak Babria, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meera Kumar, MPs Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Nazir Hussain, Lok Sabha Leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary and others.

Critics also included

With the election of the President last October, the old working committee was gone. The matters were decided by the steering committee. Six months ago, the Raipur Plenary Conference had decided to expand the working committee. With the formation of a new opposition alliance, there were plans to strengthen the party by bringing critics into the leadership ranks. Permanent members Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik and Tharoor are G-23 leaders who have written a letter demanding democracy within the party. Among them, Manish Tiwari and Veerappa Moily were made permanent invitees.