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While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees, including presidents of the Youth Congress, the National Students’ Union of India, the Mahila Congress and the Seva Dal as ex-officio members.
Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik, who were part of the group of 23 leaders that had raised questions on the party’s leadership under Sonia Gandhi, are among the general members of the new CWC. Manish Tewari and Veerappa Moily, who were also part of the grouping, have been made permanent invitees. Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pratibha Singh have also been included in the important panel, according to a Congress statement. Sachin Pilot, who rebelled against the party’s government in Rajasthan and was later removed as deputy chief minister, is also among the new CWC members.
The CWC was formed months after Kharge became the party president on October 10 last year and replaces the Steering Committee that was formed as a stop-gap arrangement . The general members of the CWC are Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram, Tariq Anwar, Lal Thanhawala, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Adhokrao Chavan, Ajay Maken, Charanjit Singh Channi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Kumari Selja, the statement said. Gaikhangam, N Raghuveera Reddy, Shashi Tharoor, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Abhishek Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Jitendra Singh, Randeep Surjewala, Sachin Pilot, Deepak Babaria, Jagdish Thakore, G S Mir, Avinash Pande, Deepa Das Munshi, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Gourav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Kamaleshwar Patel and K C Venugopal are also members.