List of presidents of the Indian National Congress

List of presidents of the Indian National Congress's theme is one that has captured the attention of millions of people around the world. For a long time now, List of presidents of the Indian National Congress has been the subject of debate, discussion and deep analysis. Its impact on society, culture and the economy is undeniable, and its relevance remains evident today. In this article, we will explore the many facets of List of presidents of the Indian National Congress, from its origin and evolution to its influence on different aspects of everyday life. Through a thorough examination, we hope to shed light on this phenomenon and provide a clear and concise view of its importance to the modern world.

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
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. 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). 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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). 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.

A total of 61 people have served as the president of the Indian National Congress since its formation. 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, in which Mallikarjun Kharge became the new president defeating Shashi Tharoor.

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)
1 1885 Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee An image of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee. Bombay

2 1886 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Calcutta
3 1887 Badruddin Tyabji An image of Badruddin Tyabji. Madras
4 1888 George Yule An image of George Yule. Allahabad
5 1889 William Wedderburn An image of William Wedderburn. Bombay
6 1890 Pherozeshah Mehta An image of Pherozesha Mehta. Calcutta
7 1891 Panapakkam Anandacharlu Nagpur
8 1892 Womesh Chandra Banerjee An image of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee. Allahabad

9 1893 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Lahore
10 1894 Alfred Webb An image of Alfred Webb. Madras
11 1895 Surendranath Banerjee An image of Surendranath Banerjee. Poona
12 1896 Rahimtulla M. Sayani An image of Rahimtulla M. Sayani. Calcutta
13 1897 C. Sankaran Nair An image of C Sankaran Nair. Amaravati
14 1898 Anandamohan Bose An image of Anandamohan Bose. Madras
15 1899 Romesh Chunder Dutt An image of Romesh Chunder Dutt. Lucknow
16 1900 N. G. Chandavarkar An image of N. G. Chandavarkar. Lahore

The pre-independence era (1901–1947)

List of presidents during 1901–1947
No. Year(s) of presidency Name Portrait Place of conference Reference(s)
17 1901 Dinshaw Edulji Wacha An image of Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. Calcutta
18 1902 Surendranath Banerjee An image of Surendranath Banerjee. Ahmedabad
19 1903 Lalmohan Ghosh Madras
20 1904 Henry John Stedman Cotton An image of Henry Cotton. Bombay
21 1905 Gopal Krishna Gokhale An image of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Benares
22 1906 Dadabhai Naoroji An image of Dadabhai Naoroji. Calcutta
23 1907 Rashbihari Ghosh An image of Rashbihari Ghosh. Surat
24 1908 Madras
25 1909 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Lahore
26 1910 William Wedderburn An image of William Wedderburn. Allahabad
27 1911 Bishan Narayan Dar Calcutta
28 1912 Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar An image of Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar. Bankipore
29 1913 Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur Karachi
30 1914 Bhupendra Nath Bose Madras
31 1915 Satyendra Prasanno Sinha An image of Satyendra Prasanno Sinha. Bombay
32 1916 Ambica Charan Mazumdar An image of Ambica Charan Mazumdar. Lucknow
33 1917 Annie Besant An image of Annie Besant. Calcutta
34 1918 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Delhi
35 1918 Syed Hasan Imam An image of Syed Hasan Imam. Bombay (special session)
36 1919 Motilal Nehru An image of Motilal Nehru. Amritsar
37 1920 Lala Lajpat Rai An image of Lala Lajpat Rai. Calcutta (Special Session)
38 1920 C. Vijayaraghavachariar An image of C. Vijayaraghavachariar. Nagpur
39 1921 Hakim Ajmal Khan An image of Hakim Ajmal Khan. Ahmedabad
40 1922 Chittaranjan Das An image of Chittaranjan Das. Gaya
41 1923 Mohammad Ali Jauhar An image of Mohammad Ali Jouhar. Kakinada
42 1923 Abul Kalam Azad An image of Abul Kalam Azad. Delhi (Special Session)
43 1924 Mahatma Gandhi An image of Mahatma Gandhi. Belgaum
44 1925 Sarojini Naidu An image of Sarojini Naidu. Kanpur
45 1926 S. Srinivasa Iyengar An image of S. Srinivasa Iyengar. Guwahati
46 1927 Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari An image of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari. Madras
47 1928 Motilal Nehru An image of Motilal Nehru. Calcutta
48 1929 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Lahore
49 1930 Karachi
50 1931 Vallabhbhai Patel An image of Vallabhbhai Patel. Karachi
51 1932 Madan Mohan Malaviya An image of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Delhi
52 1933 Nellie Sengupta An image of Nellie Sengupta. Calcutta
53 1934 Rajendra Prasad An image of Rajendra Prasad. Bombay
54 1935 Lucknow
55 1936 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Lucknow
56 1937 Faizpur
57 1938 Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose Haripura
58 1939 Tewar, Madhya Pradesh
(then Tripuri)
59 1939 (March) Rajendra Prasad An image of Rajendra Prasad. Tewar, Madhya Pradesh
(then Tripuri)
60 1940–46 Abul Kalam Azad An image of Abdul Kalam Azad. Ramgarh
61 1946 (July-Sept) Jawaharlal Nehru
62 1946–47 J. B. Kripalani An image of J. B. Kripalani. Meerut

The post-independence era (1948–present)

List of presidents since independence
No. Year(s) of Presidency Name Portrait Place of Conference Reference(s)
62 1948–1949 Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya An image of Pattabhi Sitaraimayya. Jaipur
63 1950 Purushottam Das Tandon An image of Purushottam Das Tandon. Nashik
64 1951–1952 Jawaharlal Nehru An image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Delhi
65 1953 Hyderabad
66 1954 Kalyani
67 1955 U. N. Dhebar An image of U. N. Dhebar. Avadi
68 1956 Amritsar
69 1957 Indore
70 1958 Gauhati
71 1959 Nagpur
72 1959 Indira Gandhi An image of Indira Gandhi. Delhi (special session)
73 1960 Neelam Sanjiva Reddy An image of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. Bangalore
74 1961 Bhavnagar
75 1962–1963 Patna
76 1964 K. Kamaraj An image of K. Kamaraj. Bhubaneswar
77 1965 Durgapur
78 1966–1967 Jaipur
79 1968 S. Nijalingappa An image of S. Nijalingappa. Hyderabad
80 1969 Faridabad
81 1970–1971 Jagjivan Ram An image of Jagjivan Ram. Mumbai
82 1972–74 Shankar Dayal Sharma An image of Shankar Dayal Sharma. Calcutta
83 1975–77 Devakanta Barua An image of Devakanta Barua. Chandigarh
84 1977–78 Kasu Brahmananda Reddy An image of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Chandigarh
85 1978–83 Indira Gandhi An image of Indira Gandhi. New Delhi
85 1983 Calcutta
86 1985–1991 Rajiv Gandhi An image of Rajiv Gandhi. Bombay

87 1992 P. V. Narasimha Rao Tirupati
88 1993 Surajkund
89 1994 Delhi
90 1996–1998 Sitaram Kesri Calcutta
91 1998–2001 Sonia Gandhi New Delhi
92 2001–2004 Bangalore
93 2004–2006 New Delhi
94 2006–2010 Hyderabad
95 2010–2017 New Delhi
96 2017–2019 Rahul Gandhi An image of Rahul Gandhi. New Delhi
97 2019–2022 Sonia Gandhi An image of Sonia Gandhi. Jaipur
98 2022–Incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge New Delhi

See also

References

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