Explained | The Congress party’s internal administration

All Congress committees, office bearers and executive committees ordinarily hold office for a period of five years.

The story so far: Demands for a complete overhaul of the central leadership bears the potential to attain centrality in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet on Sunday. The political party has met to discuss the causes of poor showing in the recently-concluded Assembly election in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Uttar Pradesh. The meeting was attended by the extended CWC, which has 68 members including the in-charges of the five States.  

The Hindu learnt that members held apprehensions about the utility of such meetings when the party is yet to take cognisance of the Ashok Chavan committee report which analysed the reasons for its performance in Kerala and West Bengal the previous year.  

The CWC is the highest executive authority of the party and carries out all activities, policies and programmes of the party and the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), to whom it reports.  

It consists of the overall Congress president, the party’s Leader in Parliament and 23 other members, of whom 12 or more are elected by the AICC. The rest are appointed by the party president. According to Congress Constitution, ordinarily members of the committee are to be appointed from amongst the members of the AICC. However, in some cases, a non-member of the AICC may be appointed provided he or she is elected as an AICC member within six months of the appointment at CWC.  

CWC has the power to frame rules for the proper working of the organisation and give instructions in all matters related to administration, as well as superintend, direct and control all the party’s State units (Pradesh Congress Committee or PCC) and other subordinate committees. This includes initiating disciplinary action.

The quorum for convening a CWC meeting is eight. 

The AICC has the power to frame rules to regularise all matters connected with the party. Its discretion is binding on all other committees. The overall president of the party spearheads the functioning of this committee. The purpose of the committee is to arrange for the implementation of the activities and programmes of the party and deal with issues and situations that may arise during its term at the office.