CWC members refute charge that '50 under 50' norm was not followed, call recast panel 'balanced'

The “50 under 50” norm meant that half of all office bearers in the party would be under 50 years of age to give the party a younger look and assign leadership roles to the younger workers. -- Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: A day after AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge reconstituted the Congress Working Committee (CWC), two young members of the party panel defended the charge that the norm of “50 under 50” was not followed in the recast of the panel.

The “50 under 50” norm meant that half of all office bearers in the party would be under 50 years of age to give the party a younger look and assign leadership roles to the younger workers. The norm was first included in the party’s 2022 Udaipur Declaration which presented a roadmap for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and later adopted as a part of a resolution passed at the Plenary Session at Raipur in February.

However, the party faced criticism from within on August 20 when the recast CWC was announced. The key organizational reform had been missed as only two, Sachin Pilot and Gourav Gogoi, out of the total 39 members were under 50 years of age. "This is a wrong perception. See, the resolution adopted at the Plenary Session decided on two key changes to the CWC. First, the membership of the body was increased from 24 earlier to 35 to facilitate expansion.

Earlier, out of 24, 11 members used to be nominated and the remaining elected, barring the Congress president. Under the new rule, it was decided that 18 members would be elected while 17 would be nominated by the party president. Out of the 18 elected members, a minimum of six were to be from the SC, ST, minority, women and youth. Out of 35, at least half the members had to be from SC, ST, OBC, minority, women and youth category. The norm was adopted at the Plenary Session to make the CWC more inclusive and give representation to all sections of society. The norm has been followed in the reconstitution of the CWC,” AICC Secretary in charge organization Vamshi Chand Reddy told ETV Bharat.

Reddy, who was made a Special Invitee to the CWC by Kharge on August 20 said, “Different reservation norms for the Pradesh Congress Committees and the All-India Congress Committee were adopted at the Plenary Session.” The Plenary Session was held to approve the election of Kharge as the new AICC president in October 2022.

Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda, who has been made a Permanent Invitee to the CWC by Kharge, welcomed the recast of the key party panel that has been awaited over the past six months and countered the charge that the “50 under 50” norm was not followed. “I welcome the new CWC. The reconstitution of the CWC has a balance of all types,” Hooda told ETV Bharat.

According to AICC General Secretary in charge of Jharkhand, Avinash Pande, one of the CWC members, the new panel has given representation to all sections of society and all the regions of the country in a balanced way. “It is a very good panel and has regional as well as social balance. The panel had been working round the clock in the form of the Steering Committee. It has been properly formulated as the CWC. Now, it will get down to handling the political challenges including the coming assembly polls and the 2024 national election,” Pande said.