President of the Indian National Congress
Incumbent
Mallikarjun Kharge
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, Wyomesh 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.[13]

List of party presidents

The founding years (1885–1900)

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

The pre-independence era (1901–1947)

List of presidents during 1901–1947
No. Year(s) of presidency Name Portrait Place of conference Reference(s)[14]
17 1901 Dinshaw Edulji Wacha An image of Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. Calcutta [25]
18 1902 Surendranath Banerjee An image of Surendranath Banerjee. Ahmedabad [22]
19 1903 Lalmohan Ghosh Madras [23]
20 1904 Henry John Stedman Cotton An image of Henry Cotton. Bombay [26]
21 1905 Gopal Krishna Gokhale An image of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Benares [23]
22 1906 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Calcutta [18]
23 1907 Rashbihari Ghosh An image of Rashbihari Ghosh. Surat [23]
24 1908 Madras [23]
25 1909 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Lahore [23]
26 1910 William Wedderburn An image of William Wedderburn. Allahabad [22]
27 1911 Bishan Narayan Dar Calcutta [23]
28 1912 Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar An image of Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar. Bankipore [23]
29 1913 Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur Karachi [23]
30 1914 Bhupendra Nath Bose Madras [23]
31 1915 Satyendra Prasanno Sinha An image of Satyendra Prasanno Sinha. Bombay [24]
32 1916 Ambica Charan Mazumdar An image of Ambica Charan Mazumdar. Lucknow [24]
33 1917 Annie Besant An image of Annie Besant. Calcutta [24]
34 1918 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Delhi [23]
35 1918 Syed Hasan Imam An image of Syed Hasan Imam. Bombay (special session) [24]
36 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 1920 C. Vijayaraghavachariar An image of C. Vijayaraghavachariar. Nagpur [27]
39 1921 Hakim Ajmal Khan An image of Hakim Ajmal Khan. Ahmedabad [27]
40 1922 Chittaranjan Das An image of Chittaranjan Das. Gaya [27]
41 1923 Mohammad Ali Jauhar An image of Mohammad Ali Jouhar. Kakinada [27]
42 1923 Abul Kalam Azad An image of Abul Kalam Azad. Delhi (Special Session) [27]
43 1924 Mahatma Gandhi An image of Mahatma Gandhi. Belgaum [28]
44 1925 Sarojini Naidu An image of Sarojini Naidu. Kanpur [27]
45 1926 S. Srinivasa Iyengar An image of S. Srinivasa Iyengar. Guwahati [27]
46 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 Abul Kalam Azad An image of Abdul Kalam Azad. Ramgarh [27]
61 1946 (July-Sept) Jawaharlal Nehru [32]
62 1946–47 J. B. Kripalani An image of J. B. Kripalani. Meerut [33]

The post-independence era (1948–present)

List of presidents since independence
No. Year(s) of Presidency Name Portrait Place of Conference Reference(s)[14]
62 1948–1949 Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya An image of Pattabhi Sitaraimayya. Jaipur [33]
63 1950 Purushottam Das Tandon An image of Purushottam Das Tandon. Nashik [33]
64 1951–1952 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Delhi [34]
[31]
65 1953 Hyderabad [34]
[31]
66 1954 Kalyani [34]
[31]
67 1955 U. N. Dhebar An image of U. N. Dhebar. Avadi [23]
68 1956 Amritsar [23]
69 1957 Indore [23]
70 1958 Gauhati [23]
71 1959 Nagpur [23]
72 1959 Indira Gandhi An image of Indira Gandhi. Delhi (special session) [35]
[36]
73 1960 Neelam Sanjiva Reddy An image of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. Bangalore [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. Calcutta [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 Calcutta [35]
[36]
86 1985–1991 Rajiv Gandhi An image of Rajiv Gandhi. Bombay [38]
[39]
[40]
87 1992 P. V. Narasimha Rao Tirupati [23]
88 1993 Surajkund [23]
89 1994 Delhi [23]
90 1996–1998 Sitaram Kesri Calcutta [23]
91 1998–2001 Sonia Gandhi New Delhi [41]
[42]
92 2001–2004 Bangalore [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 An image of 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

References

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