Rahul Gandhi dissolves CWC for steering panel

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has dissolved the party’s highest decision-making body, Central Working Committee (CWC), and formed a 34-member Steering Committee that will work in its place for the upcoming plenary session.

While all CWC members are part of the new committee, some of the permanent invitees like Amarinder Singh, Vilas Muttemwar, RK Dhawan, Shivajirao Deshmukh, MV Rajasekharan and Mohsina Kidwai, as well all special invitees have been dropped.

The Steering Committee will meet on Saturday to decide on the schedule for the plenary session, which is likely to be held before the start of the second part of budget session of Parliament on March 5.

The AICC plenary will ratify the December 11 election of Rahul as Congress president, ending the entire process of organisational elections.

The Steering Committee will function till the plenary session, after which a new CWC will be put in place.

As per the party’s Constitution, the 25-member CWC has 12 elected members and 11 nominated members, besides the Congress president and the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

The new members of the CWC will be elected either at the plenary or after it.

“Congress president has constituted a Steering Committee for the forthcoming plenary session as per Article XV (vii) (b) of the party’s Constitution. The Steering Committee will function in place of the Working Committee of the party,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.

—Input Agencies