NEW DELHI: In one of the major moves for the Indian National Congress earlier last week (Congress) Mallikarjun Kharge constituted an 84-member Congress Working Committee (CWC) nearly ten months after becoming the party's president. 

The newly formed CWC constitutes 39 regular members, 18 permanent invitees, 14 in-charges, 9 special invitees, and 4 ex-officio members included in the new CWC and has a 66.6 per cent reservation for SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities and women as promised during its Raipur plenary session. All the members of the Gandhi family including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are naturally included in the supreme working committee. 

However, with average age of the newly-formed 84-member CWC being 61 years, with the eldest member being former prime minister Manmohan Singh at 90, the party fell short of its promises made in the declaration that was adopted at Congress’ three-day Chintan Shivir in Udaipur 

The Udaipur Nav Sankalp Declaration of 15th May 2022 said that considering the demographics of India, it is important to ensure that 50 per cent of the office bearers in CWC and regional committees are below the age of 50. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge, himself is 81 years old.

The party has also tried to balance dissenting members by accommodating leaders like Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma and Sachin Pilot from Rajasthan who revolted against his own government in 2020 and Shashi Tharoor who contested against party president Mallikarjun Kharge in October 2022 Congress by including them in the party's highest decision making body.

The party has also tried to include several leaders from poll-bound states in the CWS, and many from Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, where assembly elections are due shortly and Lok Sabha elections are due in 2024 have been accommodated in the CWC.

The average age of the 39 regular members, mostly members of the old guards who have extensive political experience, works out to around 66 years old. These include Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Veerappa Moily, T. Subbarami Reddy, Salman Khurshid, Harish Rawat, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor etc.

Among those who have found place in the CWC, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Sachin Pilot, Supriya Shrinate, BV Srinivas, Deepender Hooda, Alka Lamba, Meenakshi Natrajan, Praniti Shinde, Phulo Devi Netam, and Gurdeep Sappal are just a few of the 21 'young' members who are allegedly under 50 years old.

31-year-old Neeraj Kundan, is the CWC's youngest member and an ex-officio member as the head of the party's student arm, the National Students Union of India.