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, founded by retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume.Allan Octavian Hume 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, Womesh 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 in the 2022 Indian National Congress presidential election.
During the founding years (1885–1900) + List of presidents during 1885–1900 Year(s) of presidency Leader Portrait Place of conference Reference(s) 1 December 1885 Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee Bombay 2 December 1886 Calcutta 3 December 1887 Madras 4 December 1888 Allahabad 5 December 1889 Bombay 6 December 1890 Calcutta 7 December 1891Nagpur 8 December 1892 Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee Allahabad 9 December 1893 Dadabhai Naoroji Lahore 10 December 1894 Madras 11 December 1895 Poona 12 December 1896 Calcutta 13 December 1897 Amaravati 14 December 1898 Madras 15 December 1899 Lucknow 16 December 1900 Lahore
List of party presidents during the pre-independence era (1901–1947) + List of presidents during 1901–1947 Year(s) of presidency Name Portrait Place of conference Reference(s) 17 December 1901 Calcutta 18 December 1902 Ahmedabad 19 December 1903 Madras 20 December 1904 Bombay 21 December 1905 Benares 22 December 1906 Calcutta 23 December 1907 Surat 24 December 1908 Madras 25 December 1909 Lahore 26 December 1910 Allahabad 27 December 1911 Calcutta 28 December 1912 Bankipore 29 December 1913 Karachi 30 April 1914 Madras 31 December 1915 Bombay 32 December 1916 Lucknow 33 December 1917 Calcutta 34 August 1918 Bombay (special session) 35 December 1918 Delhi 36 December 1919 Amritsar 37 1920 Calcutta (Special Session) 38 December 1920 Nagpur 39 December 1921 Ahmedabad 40 December 1922 Gaya 41 1923 Kakinada 42 September 1923 Delhi (Special Session) 43 December 1924 Belgaum 44 April 1925 Kanpur 45 December 1926 Guwahati 46 December 1927 Madras 47 1928 Calcutta 48 1929 Lahore 49 1930 Karachi 50 1931 Karachi 51 1932 Delhi 52 1933 Calcutta 53 1934 Bombay 54 1935 Lucknow 55 1936 Lucknow 56 1937 Faizpur 57 1938 Haripura 58 1939 Tewar, Madhya Pradesh (then Tripuri) 59 1939 (March) Tewar, Madhya Pradesh (then Tripuri) 60 1940–46 Duration of World war 2 Ramgarh611946 (July–Sept)Jawaharlal Nehru 62 1946 Meerut 63 1947
List of party presidents during the post-independence era (1948–present) +List of presidents since independence Year(s) of Presidency Name Portrait Place of Conference Reference(s) 64 1948 Jaipur 65 1949 Jaipur 66 1950 Nashik 67 1951 New Delhi 681952 New Delhi 69 1953Hyderabad 70 1954Kalyani 71 1955 Avadi 72 1956 Amritsar 73 1957Indore 74 1958Guwahati 75 1959 Nagpur 76 1959 Delhi (special session) 73 1960 Bengaluru 74 1961Bhavnagar 75 1962 Patna 75 1962–1963 Patna 76 1964 Bhubaneswar 77 1965Durgapur 78 1966–1967Jaipur 79 1968 Hyderabad 80 1969Faridabad 81 1970–1971 Mumbai 82 1972–74 Kolkata 83 1975–77 Chandigarh 84 1977–78 Chandigarh 85 1978–83 Indira Gandhi New Delhi 85 1983 Kolkata 86 1985–1991 Mumbai 87 1992 Tirupati 88 1993Surajkund 89 1994 Delhi 90 1996–1998 Kolkata 91 1998–2001 New Delhi 92 2001–2004 Bengaluru 93 2004–2006 New Delhi 94 2006–2010 Hyderabad 95 2010–2017 New Delhi 96 2017–2019 New Delhi 97 2019–2022 Sonia Gandhi Jaipur 982022–IncumbentMallikarjun Kharge New Delhi
See also Gandhi–Nehru family List of state presidents of the Indian National Congress List of national presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party List of general secretaries of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
References
External links Official Indian National Congress website