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List of national presidents of the Indian National Congress

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President of the Indian National Congress
since 26 October 2022 (2022-10-26)
Residence24 Akbar Road, New Delhi
AppointerCommittee consisting of members of the Indian National Congress from the National and State Committees
Term lengthno term limit
Constituting instrumentConstitution of the Indian National Congress[1]
PrecursorSonia Gandhi
Formation28 December 1885 (1885-12-28)
First holderWomesh Chandra Bonnerjee (1885–1886)
WebsiteOfficial website
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The president of the Indian National Congress is the chief executive of the Indian National Congress (INC), one of the principal political parties in India.[1] Constitutionally, the president is elected by an electoral college composed of members drawn from the Pradesh Congress Committees and members of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).[2] In the event of any emergency because of any cause such as the death or resignation of the president elected as above, the most senior general secretary discharges the routine functions of the president until the Working Committee appoints a provisional president pending the election of a regular president by the AICC.[2] The president of the party has effectively been the party's national leader, head of the party's organisation, head of the Working Committee, the chief spokesman, and all chief Congress committees.[3]

After the party's foundation in December 1885, Womesh Chandra Banerjee became its first president. From 1885 to 1933, the presidency had a term of one year only. From 1933 onwards, there was no such fixed term for the president.[4] During Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership, he rarely held the Presidency of INC, even though he was always head of the Parliamentary Party. Despite being a party with a structure, Congress under Indira Gandhi did not hold any organisational elections after 1978.[5] In 1978, Gandhi split from the INC and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I), which the national election commission declared to be the real Indian National Congress for the 1980 general election.[6][7][8] Gandhi institutionalised the practice of having the same person as the Congress president and the prime minister of India after the formation of Congress (I).[9] Her successors Rajiv Gandhi and P. V. Narasimha Rao also continued that practice. Nonetheless, in 2004, when the Congress was voted back into power, Manmohan Singh became the first and only prime minister not to be the president of the party since establishment of the practice of the president holding both positions.[10]

A total of 61 people have served as the president of the Indian National Congress since its formation.[11] Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving president of the party, having held the office for over twenty years from 1998 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2022. The latest election of president was held on 17 October 2022,[12] in which Mallikarjun Kharge became the new president defeating Shashi Tharoor in the 2022 Indian National Congress presidential election.[13]

List of party presidents

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The founding years (1885–1900)

[edit]
List of presidents during 1885–1900
No. Year(s) of presidency Leader Portrait Place of conference Reference(s)[14]
1 December 1885 Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee An image of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee. Bombay [15]
[16]
[17]
2 December 1886 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Calcutta [18]
3 December 1887 Badruddin Tyabji An image of Badruddin Tyabji. Madras [19]
[20]
4 December 1888 George Yule An image of George Yule. Allahabad [21]
5 December 1889 William Wedderburn An image of William Wedderburn. Bombay [22]
6 December 1890 Pherozeshah Mehta An image of Pherozesha Mehta. Calcutta [22]
7 December 1891 Panapakkam Anandacharlu Nagpur [23]
8 December 1892 Womesh Chandra Banerjee An image of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee. Allahabad [15]
[16]
[17]
9 December 1893 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Lahore [18]
10 December 1894 Alfred Webb An image of Alfred Webb. Madras [22]
11 December 1895 Surendranath Banerjee An image of Surendranath Banerjee. Poona [22]
12 December 1896 Rahimtulla M. Sayani An image of Rahimtulla M. Sayani. Calcutta [22]
13 December 1897 C. Sankaran Nair An image of C Sankaran Nair. Amaravati [24]
14 December 1898 Anandamohan Bose An image of Anandamohan Bose. Madras [24]
15 December 1899 Romesh Chunder Dutt An image of Romesh Chunder Dutt. Lucknow [24]
16 December 1900 N. G. Chandavarkar An image of N. G. Chandavarkar. Lahore [24]

The pre-independence era (1901–1947)

[edit]
List of presidents during 1901–1947
No. Year(s) of presidency Name Portrait Place of conference Reference(s)[14]
17 December 1901 Dinshaw Edulji Wacha An image of Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. Calcutta [25]
18 December 1902 Surendranath Banerjee An image of Surendranath Banerjee. Ahmedabad [22]
19 December 1903 Lalmohan Ghosh Madras [23]
20 December 1904 Henry John Stedman Cotton An image of Henry Cotton. Bombay [26]
21 December 1905 Gopal Krishna Gokhale An image of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Benares [23]
22 December 1906 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Calcutta [18]
23 December 1907 Rashbihari Ghosh An image of Rashbihari Ghosh. Surat [23]
24 December 1908 Madras [23]
25 December 1909 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Lahore [23]
26 December 1910 William Wedderburn An image of William Wedderburn. Allahabad [22]
27 December 1911 Bishan Narayan Dar Calcutta [23]
28 December 1912 Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar An image of Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar. Bankipore [23]
29 December 1913 Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur Karachi [23]
30 April 1914 Bhupendra Nath Bose Madras [23]
31 December 1915 Satyendra Prasanno Sinha An image of Satyendra Prasanno Sinha. Bombay [24]
32 December 1916 Ambica Charan Mazumdar An image of Ambica Charan Mazumdar. Lucknow [24]
33 December 1917 Annie Besant An image of Annie Besant. Calcutta [24]
34 August 1918 Syed Hasan Imam An image of Syed Hasan Imam. Bombay (special session) [24]
35 December 1918 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Delhi [23]
36 December 1919 Motilal Nehru An image of Motilal Nehru. Amritsar [24]
37 1920 Lala Lajpat Rai An image of Lala Lajpat Rai. Calcutta (Special Session) [24]
38 December 1920 C. Vijayaraghavachariar An image of C. Vijayaraghavachariar. Nagpur [27]
39 December 1921 Hakim Ajmal Khan An image of Hakim Ajmal Khan. Ahmedabad [27]
40 December 1922 Chittaranjan Das An image of Chittaranjan Das. Gaya [27]
41 1923 Mohammad Ali Jauhar An image of Mohammad Ali Jouhar. Kakinada [27]
42 September 1923 Abul Kalam Azad An image of Abul Kalam Azad. Delhi (Special Session) [27]
43 December 1924 Mahatma Gandhi An image of Mahatma Gandhi. Belgaum [28]
44 April 1925 Sarojini Naidu An image of Sarojini Naidu. Kanpur [27]
45 December 1926 S. Srinivasa Iyengar An image of S. Srinivasa Iyengar. Guwahati [27]
46 December 1927 Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari An image of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari. Madras [27]
47 1928 Motilal Nehru An image of Motilal Nehru. Calcutta [24]
48 1929 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Lahore [27]
49 1930 Karachi [27]
50 1931 Vallabhbhai Patel An image of Vallabhbhai Patel. Karachi [27]
51 1932 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Delhi [23]
52 1933 Nellie Sengupta An image of Nellie Sengupta. Calcutta [29]
53 1934 Rajendra Prasad An image of Rajendra Prasad. Bombay [30]
54 1935 Lucknow [30]
55 1936 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Lucknow [27]
56 1937 Faizpur [27]
57 1938 Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose Haripura [28]
[31]
58 1939 Tewar, Madhya Pradesh
(then Tripuri) 		[28]
[31]
59 1939 (March) Rajendra Prasad An image of Rajendra Prasad. Tewar, Madhya Pradesh
(then Tripuri) 		[30]
60 1940–46

Duration of World war 2

Abul Kalam Azad An image of Abul Kalam Azad. Ramgarh [27]
61 1946 (July–Sept) Jawaharlal Nehru [32]
62 1946 J. B. Kripalani An image of J. B. Kripalani. Meerut [33]
63 1947

The post-independence era (1948–present)

[edit]
List of presidents since independence
No. Year(s) of Presidency Name Portrait Place of Conference Reference(s)[14]
64 1948 Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya An image of Pattabhi Sitaraimayya. Jaipur [33]
65 1949 Jaipur
66 1950 Purushottam Das Tandon An image of Purushottam Das Tandon. Nashik [33]
67 1951 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Delhi [34]
[31]
68 1952 Delhi
69 1953 Hyderabad [34]
[31]
70 1954 Kalyani [34]
[31]
71 1955 U. N. Dhebar An image of U. N. Dhebar. Avadi [23]
72 1956 Amritsar [23]
73 1957 Indore [23]
74 1958 Gauhati [23]
75 1959 Nagpur [23]
76 1959 Indira Gandhi An image of Indira Gandhi. Delhi (special session) [35]
[36]
73 1960 Neelam Sanjiva Reddy An image of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. Bengaluru [33]
74 1961 Bhavnagar [33]
75 1962–1963 Patna [33]
76 1964 K. Kamaraj An image of K. Kamaraj. Bhubaneswar [33]
77 1965 Durgapur [33]
78 1966–1967 Jaipur [33]
79 1968 S. Nijalingappa An image of S. Nijalingappa. Hyderabad [33]
80 1969 Faridabad [33]
81 1970–1971 Jagjivan Ram An image of Jagjivan Ram. Mumbai [33]
82 1972–74 Shankar Dayal Sharma An image of Shankar Dayal Sharma. Kolkata [33]
83 1975–77 Devakanta Barua An image of Devakanta Barua. Chandigarh [33]
84 1977–78 Kasu Brahmananda Reddy An image of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Chandigarh [37]
85 1978–83 Indira Gandhi An image of Indira Gandhi. New Delhi [35]
[36]
85 1983 Kolkata [35]
[36]
86 1985–1991 Rajiv Gandhi An image of Rajiv Gandhi. Mumbai [38]
[39]
[40]
87 1992 P. V. Narasimha Rao Tirupati [23]
88 1993 Surajkund [23]
89 1994 Delhi [23]
90 1996–1998 Sitaram Kesri Kolkata [23]
91 1998–2001 Sonia Gandhi New Delhi [41]
[42]
92 2001–2004 Bengaluru [41]
[42]
93 2004–2006 New Delhi [41]
[42]
94 2006–2010 Hyderabad [41]
[42]
95 2010–2017 New Delhi [41]
[42]
96 2017–2019 Rahul Gandhi New Delhi [43]
97 2019–2022 Sonia Gandhi An image of Sonia Gandhi. Jaipur [41]
[42]
98 2022–Incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge New Delhi [44]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Constitution & Rules of the Indian National Congress" (PDF). Indian National Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  2. ^ a b C G, Manoj (3 February 2021). "Explained: a Congress president – how these polls are meant to be held, how it plays out". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  3. ^ Kumar, Kedar Nath (1 January 1990). Political Parties in India, Their Ideology and Organisation. Mittal Publications. pp. 41–43. ISBN 978-81-7099-205-9.
  4. ^ Mondal, Manisha (29 December 2018). "Remembering WC Bonnerjee, the first president of Indian National Congress". Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  5. ^ Sanghvi, Vijay (2006). The Congress Indira to Sonia Gandhi. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications. p. 128. ISBN 978-81-7835-340-1. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  6. ^ Basu, Manisha (2 November 2016). The Rhetoric of Hindutva. Cambridge University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8.
  7. ^ Statistical Report on General Elections, 1980 to the Seventh Lok Sabha (PDF). Election Commission of India. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  8. ^ "Postindependence: from dominance to decline". Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  9. ^ Chakravartty, Nikhil (31 January 1978). "Indira Gandhi installed as president of break-away faction of Congress Party". India Today. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  10. ^ Deka, Kaushik (8 July 2019). "Goodbye, Rahul Gandhi?". India Today. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
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  12. ^ "Congress to elect new president on Oct 17, results on Oct 19". The Times of India. 28 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Mallikarjun Kharge Is Chief – Congress Sticks To What It Knows". NDTV. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  14. ^ a b c "Congress Sessions". All India Congress Committee. 6 February 2010. Archived from the original on 6 February 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  15. ^ a b Nanda, B. R. (1977). Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj. Legacy Series. Princeton University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4008-7049-3. Archived from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2019. In 1874, he became Prime Minister of Baroda and was a member of the Legislative Council of Bombay (1885–88).2015
  16. ^ a b Mahmud, Sayed Jafar (1994). Pillars of Modern India, 1757–1947. APH Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 978-81-7024-586-5. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
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  19. ^ Anonymous (1926). Eminent Mussalmans (1 ed.). Madras: G.A. Natesan & Co. pp. 97–112. OCLC 462824439.
  20. ^ Tyabji, Badruddin. "Presidential speech to the Indian National Congress, 1887". Columbia University. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  21. ^ Hall, Catherine; Sonya O. Rose (2006). At Home with the Empire: Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World. Cambridge University Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-139-46009-5. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
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  23. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u "Dadabhai Naoroji to Nehru; Indira to Sonia: Profiles of Congress presidents". Hindustan Times. 11 December 2017. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rangnekar, Prashant (11 December 2017). "All the Congress presidents: from family to foreigners". Outlook. Press Trust of India. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  25. ^ Sunavala, Nergish (25 January 2015). "Nobody learns Parsi history in schools, says historian". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
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  32. ^ "Indian National Congress: From 1885 till 2017, a brief history of past presidents". The Indian Express. 4 December 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Radhakrishnan, Sruthi (14 December 2017). "Presidents of Congress past: A look at the party's presidency since 1947". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
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  37. ^ "Congress President Elections: History of Six Congress Elections".
  38. ^ "Shri Rajiv Gandhi". Prime Minister's Office (India). Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  39. ^ Mitra, Sumit (16 January 2014). "Count-down to centenary celebration of Indian National Congress in Bombay begins". India Today. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  40. ^ "Let the comparisons begin: Let the comparisons begin: Full text of Rajiv Gandhi's famous 1985 speech". India Today. 21 January 2013. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  41. ^ a b c d e f "Sonia Gandhi named interim Congress president". Doordarshan. Prasar Bharti. 11 August 2019. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  42. ^ a b c d e f Jagannath, J. (24 August 2020). "Sonia Gandhi to continue as Congress president for now". Mint. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  43. ^ "Rahul Gandhi only leader who can take over as Congress president: Ripun Bora". The Hindu. 16 February 2021. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  44. ^ "LIVE: Shashi Tharoor concedes Congress president poll defeat, wishes Mallikarjun Kharge 'all success'". Hindustan Times. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
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