The Indian National Congress Controversies and criticisms Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakes hands with the

then U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney after delivering a speech to the Joint session of the United States Congress as the then Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert looks on. Since the party has dominated the political landscape of India for over a century, there are many charges of corruption and similar charges against it. Some examples are: 1947 - anti-Godse riots After the knowledge that the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse, was a Maharashtrian Brahmin, some workers of the Congress Party went on a rampage, against the supporters of Savarkar and Nathuram Godse, burning their houses and putting thousands in jail. [10] 1975-1977 - State of Emergency

Main article: Indian Emergency (1975-1977)

On 12 June 1975 the High Court of Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha void on grounds of electoral malpractice. But Mrs Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. Indira had already been accused of authoritarianism. By using her strong parliamentary majority, her ruling Congress Party had amended the Constitution and altered the balance of power between the Centre and the States in favour of the Central Government. She had twice imposed "President's Rule" under Article 356 of the Constitution by declaring states ruled by opposition parties as "lawless and chaotic", and thus seizing control. In response to her new tendency for authoritarian use of power, public figures and former freedom-fighters like Jaya Prakash Narayan, Satyendra Narayan Sinha and Acharya Jivatram Kripalani toured India, speaking actively against her and her government. Indira Gandhi moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. Her Cabinet and government then recommended that President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

declare a state of emergency, because of the disorder and lawlessness following the Allahabad High Court decision. Accordingly, Ahmed declared a State of Emergency caused by internal disorder, based on the provisions of Article 352 of the Constitution, on 26 June 1975. It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India . [11] 1984 anti-Sikh riots

Main article: 1984 anti - Sikh riots

After the assassination of Indira Gandhi by 2 of her Sikh Body Guards following Operation Bluestar , many Congress workers including Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were accused of inciting and participating in Sikh riots. Rajiv Gandhi's remarks Then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, made a statement at Boat Club in New Delhi on 19 November 1984, on the birthday of Indira Gandhi, "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.". [12][13][14] Allegations of conspiracy and cover-ups There are allegations that the government destroyed evidence and shielded the guilty. The Asian Age front page story called the government actions " the Mother of all Cover-ups " [15][16] There are allegations that the violence was led and often perpetrated by Indian National Congress activists and sympathizers during the riots. The government, then led by the Congress, was widely criticized for doing very little at the time, possibly acting as a conspirator. The conspiracy theory is supported by the fact that voting lists were used to identify Sikh families. Allegations of religious bias The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and also many right - wing Hindus have repeatedly accused the Congress Party and its allies of being pro-Muslim, proIslam supporting Sharia Laws and showing unnatural favouritism to the Indian Muslim community and toleration, or even promotion of Islamic conservatism and Obscurantism.

The BJP and many Indian Hindus have often accused Congress party and their allies of being soft on Islamic extremism , Islamic fundamentalism , Islamic terrorism and Islamism by scrapping Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) immediately after it won the elections in 2004, refusing death penalty to hard-core Islamic terrorists like Afzal Guru , Abdul Subhan Qureshi , Safdar Nagori , Ajmal Kasab and trying to scrap the ban on Students Islamic Movement of India in order to appease Indian Muslim community. It has also been accused of being soft on Indian terrorist groups like Indian Mujahideen which resulted in the resignation of then Home Minister Shivraj Patil in 2008. Congress has been accused of deliberately fragmenting Hindus while consolidating conservative Muslim votes (by opposing the Uniform Civil Code and allowing Muslims a separate personal code , etc.) The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and previous Congress-led governments have been accused of revising history textbooks to present a Marxist bias, and whitewashing the record of Atrocities committed by Muslim Emperors and Kings on Hindus during six hundred years of Islamic Rule over India and during the Partition of India in order to "de-saffronize" textbooks and acquire Muslim votes. Congress has been accused [ by whom? ] of funding the Indian Muslims' Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and subsidies for their religious schools (Madrassas) at the cost of the taxpayers' money. On one hand, Government of India provides subsidy to Muslims to perform Hajj; on other hand, Government of India bound them to fly through government airlines and also gets subsidy from Saudi Arabia for services providing to Indian Muslims, whereas Hindus claim they are accorded no similar privilege for their own pilgrimages or religious schools by the Government of India. The Congress party and its allies are accused of showing "partial" secularism, in which only Hindus are expected to be secular while Muslims and other minorities remain free to practice exclusionary practices. [17] . Congress and its allies are often accused of ignoring the plea of Kashmiri Pandits for action against Islamic terrorists in Kashmir and solely focusing on

the issues of the Indian Muslim community to gain Muslim votes. Kashmiri Pandits have been in exile since January 1990 following the outbreak of terrorism in Kashmir. The Congress-led UPA government has been accused by both Hindu and Christian organizations [18] for completely ignoring the Love Jihad [19] activity allegedly perpetrated by and Islamic party Popular Front of India and its umbrella organizations under which young Muslim boys in Kerala and coastal Karnataka reportedly target college girls belonging to Hindu and Christian communities for conversion to Islam by feigning love. It has been reported that the Congress government is calling the Love Jihad activity as dubious and the allegations by Hindu and Christian organizations as un-secular for the fear of losing Muslim votes. It has been reported that local Muslim politicians have been silently supporting and promoting the 'Love Jihad' campaign in Kerala and Karnataka. Charges for bidding for seats In November 2008, senior Congress leader, Margaret Alva, made a charge that congress seats for the elections were up for bidding as opposed to a meritocratic appointment to run. The party responded to the charge by denying such a claim, as well as dropping her as general secretary of the party, the Congress Working Committee and the party's Central Election Committee . She was also stripped of her charge of the congress party in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Mizoram. Congress spokesperson, Shakeel Ahmad , added that "Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi has taken the decision on the report submitted by Mr AK Antony, chairperson of the Disciplinary Action Committee." [20] This followed an outburst by the son of the congress chairperson, Rahul Gandhi, that "Democracy in political parties is non-existent in India. You cannot enter unless you are well connected." In response the recent allegations he said, "I had made some recommendations to include some younger boys. I am not unhappy with the distribution of tickets." [21] 2010 Adarsh Housing Scam A scam involving the Maharashtra Congress government, the Indian Armed Forces and some top

ranking bureaucrats. The scam involved the Maharashtra Cheif Minister Ashok Chavan including some ministers, bureaucrats and some key Army officers and Generals which subsequenlty led to the resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. [22] 2G Spectrum Scam The scam was bought into limelight in 2010 when case filed against Minister for Communications and Information Technology A . Raja has been reported. 2G licenses were issued to private telecom players at throwaway prices in 2008. The CAG estimates the Spectrum scam has cost the government Rs. 1.76 lakh crore. Rules and procedures were flouted while issuing licenses. [23] The year 2010 was a year full of scams for the Congress(UPA) government. The government was also accused of using the CBI for their own benefits. The BJP cheif Nitin Gadkari termed the CBI as Congress Bureau of Investigation. [24] (Hindi: ) (abbreviated INC, and commonly known as the Congress) is one of the two major political parties in India , the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party . It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world.The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center - left in Indian political spectrum . Founded in 1885 by members of the occultist movement Theosophical Society Allan Octavian Hume , Dadabhai Naoroji , Dinshaw Wacha , Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee , Monomohun Ghose, Mahadev Govind Ranade and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement , with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its struggle against British rule in India. After independence in 1947, it became the nation's dominant political party , led by the Nehru Gandhi family for the most part; major challenges for party leadership have only recently formed. In the 2009 general elections , the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha , with 206 of its candidates getting elected to the 543-member house. Consequently, it along with a coalition of allies called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), was able to gain a majority and form the government.

The history of the Indian National Congress falls into two distinct eras: The pre-independence era, when the party was at the forefront of the struggle for independence and was instrumental in the whole of India; The post-independence era, when the party has enjoyed a prominent place in Indian politics, ruling the country for 48 of the 60 years since independence in 1947.

In the pre-independence era, the congress was divided in two groups, moderate and activist. The moderates were more educated and wanted to win people's faith to lead the nation to independence without bloodshed.the activists however wanted to follow a revolutionary path and make it a militant organization. The pre-independence era

First session of Indian National Congress, Bombay, 28-31, December, 1885. Main article: Indian National Congress - Freedom Era The Congress was founded by Indian and British members of the occultist movement Theosophic Society, most notably A.O. Hume. [6] . It has been suggested that the idea was originally conceived in a private meeting of seventeen men after a Theosophical Convention held at Madras in December 1884. Hume took the initiative, and it was in March 1885, when the first notice was issued convening the first Indian National Union to meet at Poona the following December. [8] Founded in 1885 with the objective of obtaining a greater share in government for educated Indians, the Indian National Congress was initially not opposed to British rule. The Congress met once a year during December. Indeed, it was a Scotsman, Allan Octavian Hume, who brought about its first meeting in Bombay, with the approval of Lord Dufferin , the then-Viceroy.

Womesh Chandra Bannerjee was the first President of the INC. The first meeting was scheduled to be held in Pune, but due to a plague outbreak there, the meeting was later shifted to Bombay. The first session of the INC was held from 2831 December 1885, and was attended by 72 delegates. A few years down the line, the demands of INC became more radical in the face of constant opposition from the government, and the party became very active in the independence movement . By 1907 the party was split into two halves: the Garam Dal (literally "hot faction") of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, or Extremists , and the Naram Dal (literally "soft faction") of Gopal Krishna Gokhale , or Moderates, distinguished by their attitude towards the British. Under the influence of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Congress became the first integrated mass organization in the country, bringing together millions of people against the British. The Indian National Congress was the only political party to provide harmony to all the sects of the Indian society [ citation
needed ]

In its time as the nation's leader in the freedom struggle, it produced the nation's greatest leaders. Before the Gandhi Era came leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak , Bipin Chandra Pal , Lala Lajpat Rai , Gopal Krishna Gokhale , Mohammed Ali Jinnah (later leader of the Muslim League and instrumental in the creation of Pakistan), all starting with the first legendary icon of Indians: Dadabhai Naoroji , the president of the sister Indian National Association and later the first Indian Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons . The Congress was transformed into a mass movement by Surendranath Banerjea and Sir Henry Cotton during the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the resultant Swadesi Movement. Gandhi came back from South Africa in 1915 and with the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale became the President of the Congress and formed an alliance with the Khilafat Movement. In protest a number of leaders went out of Congress. Khilafat movement ended up in a disaster and the Congress was split. A number of leaders Chittaranjan Das , Annie Besant , Motilal Nehru , went out of The Congress to set up the Swaraj Party.

Mahatma Gandhi , President of Congress party during 1924 With the rise of Mahatma Gandhi 's popularity and his Satyagraha art of revolution came Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the nation's first Prime Minister), Dr . Rajendra Prasad (the nation's first President), Khan Mohammad Abbas Khan , Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan , Chakravarti Rajgopalachari , Jivatram Kripalani and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad . With the already existing nationalistic feeling combined with Gandhi's popularity the Congress became a forceful mass organization in the country, bringing together millions of people by specifically working against caste differences, untouchability, poverty, and religious and ethnic boundaries. Although predominantly Hindu, it had members from virtually every religion, ethnic group, economic class and linguistic group. In 1939, Subhas Chandra Bose , the elected president in both 1938 and 1939 was expelled from the Congress for his socialist views and The Congress was reduced to a pro-Business group financed by the business houses of Birla and Bajaj. At the time of the Quit India movement, the Congress was undoubtedly the strongest political and revolutionary organization in India, but the Congress disassociated itself from the Quit India movement within a few days. The Indian National Congress could not claim to be the true representative of the Indian people as other parties were there as well particularly the Hindu Mahasabha , Azad Hind Sarkar, Forward Bloc . The 1929 Lahore session under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru holds special significance as in this session "Poorna Swaraj" (complete independence) was declared as the goal of INC. 26 January 1930 was declared as "Poorna Swaraj Diwas," Independence Day although the British remained in India a number of years longer. It was to commemorate this date particularly that The Indian Constitution was formally adopted on 26 January 1950 (even though it was passed on 26 November 1949).However in 1929 Srinivas Iyenger was expelled from the Congress for demanding full independence, not just home rule as demanded by Gandhi.

After the First World War the party became associated with Mahatma Gandhi , who remained its unofficial, spiritual leader and mass icon even as younger men and women became party president. The party was in many ways an umbrella organization, sheltering within itself radical socialists, traditionalists and even Hindu and Muslim conservatives, but all the socialists (including the Congress Socialist Party, Krishak Praja Party, Swarajya Party members) were expelled along with Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939 by Gandhi. Members of the Congress initially supported the sailors who led the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny . However they withdrew support at the critical juncture, when the mutiny failed. During the INA trials of 1946, the Congress helped to form the INA Defence Committee , which forcefully defended the case of the soldiers of the Azad Hind government. The committee declared the formation of the Congress' defence team for the INA and included famous lawyers of the time, including Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali , and Jawaharlal Nehru . The post-independence era The party remained in power for thirty continuous years between independence in 1947 and its first taste of electoral defeat (at the national level) in 1977. Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , the first Congress Prime Minister of India (19471964). Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel are said to have held the view that the INC was formed only for achieving independence and should have been disbanded in 1947. [9] However, at the time of independence, the INC (led by Jawaharlal Nehru ) was a major political organization in the country, and was established as the major political party. The Congress thus, considering the perceived need for a stable leadership and guiding vision after the terrible chaos and confusion following the Partition of India and

Independence, was re-established as an electoral party in independent India. Across several general elections, the party ruled uninterrupted until 1977, and has remained a major political force. After the murder of Gandhi in 1948, and the death of Sardar Patel in 1950, Jawaharlal Nehru was the sole remaining iconic national leader, and soon the situation became so that Nehru was key to the political potency and future of the Congress. Nehru embraced secularism, socialist economic policies and a non-aligned foreign policy, which became the hallmark of the modern Congress Party. Nehru's policies challenged the landed class, the business class and improved the position of religious minorities and lower caste Hindus. A generation of freedom fighting leaders were soon replaced by a generation of people who had grown up in the shadow of Nehru. Nehru led the Congress Party to consecutively majorities in the elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962. After Nehru's death in 1964, the party's future first came into question. No leader was competitive enough to touch Nehru's iconic status, so the secondstage leadership mustered around the compromise candidate, the gentle, soft-spoken and Nehruvian Lal Bahadur Shastri . Shastri remained Prime Minister till his own death in 1966, and a broad Congress Party election opted for Indira Gandhi , Nehru's daughter, over the right-wing, conservative Morarji Desai . K. Kamaraj

Kamaraj Toward the end of Nehru's life, K . Kamaraj was became the president of the All India Congress Committee and proposed the Kamaraj Plan . According to the plan six Congress chief ministers and six senior Cabinet ministers resigned to take up party work. After Nehru's death, Kamaraj was instrumental in bringing Lal Bahadur Shastri to power in 1964. He was part of a group of leaders in the Congress called "the syndicate". After Shastri's death, the syndicate favoured Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi over Morarji

Desai and she became the prime minister of India in 1967. For his role in the two successions, Kamaraj was widely credited as the "kingmaker" in Indian politics. Kamaraj stepped down as AICC president in 1967. Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi , thrice Prime Minister of India. The first serious challenge to Congress hegemony came in 1967 when a united opposition, under the banner of Samyukt Vidhayak Dal , won control over several states in the Hindi belt . Indira Gandhi , the daughter of Nehru, and Congress president, was then challenged by the majority of the party leadership. The conflict led to a split, and Indira launched a separate INC. Initially this party was known as Congress (R), but it soon came to be generally known as the New Congress . The official party became known as Indian National Congress ( Organisation ) led by Kamaraj. It was informally called the Old Congress . As Indira Gandhi had control over the state machinery, her faction was recognized as the "real" INC by the Election Commission of India , although her organization was the break-away group. The split can in some ways be seen as a leftwing/right-wing division. Indira Gandhi wanted to use a populist agenda in order to mobilize popular support for the party. She raised slogans such as Garibi Hatao (Remove Poverty), and wanted to develop closer ties with the Soviet Union . The regional party elites, who formed the INC(O), stood for a more conservative agenda, and distrusted Soviet help. INC(O) later merged into the Janata Party . Gradually, Indira Gandhi grew more and more authoritarian. Following allegations of widespread rigging in the general elections, a court overturned Indira Gandhi's victory in the Parliamentary constituency. Facing growing opposition she proclaimed a state of National Emergency in 1975, curtailed the powers of the courts, and unleashed a police state.

After she lifted the emergency in 1977, more Congress factions were formed, the one remaining loyal to Indira Gandhi being popularly known as Congress(I) with an 'I' for Indira. The Congress (I) was routed in the general elections by the Janata Party, but the coalition government fell apart in two years. The Congress party returned to power in the ensuing 1980 elections. In 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, in revenge for Operation Blue Star . In the following days more than six thousand Sikhs were killed in the 1984 riots, mainly in Delhi, by activists and leaders of the Congress Party. The post-Indira era

Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance and President of Indian National Congress Afterward, former treasurer Sitaram Kesri took over the reins of the party and oversaw the Congress support to the United Front governments that ran from 19961998. During his tenure, several key leaders broke away from the party, and serious infighting broke out among those left. In 1998, Sonia Gandhi finally accepted the post of Congress President, in a move that may have saved the party from extinction. After her election as party leader, a section of the party, which objected to the choice, broke away and formed the Nationalist Congress Party . The use of "Congress (I)" continues to denote the party run by Indira Gandhi's successors. There have been repeated attempts by the Indian nationalist groups (such as the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP) to discredit Sonia Gandhi's leadership on the basis of her foreign origin - she is of Italian ethnicity. Although the Congress expedited the downfall of the NDA government in 1999 by promising an alternative, Ms. Gandhi's decision was followed by fresh elections and the Congress party's worst-ever tally in the lower house. The party spent the interval period forging alliances and overseeing changes in the state and central organizations to revive the party. It has had

many electoral successes which led up to the formation of a Congress-led government in 2004. In the next general election in 2009 which made Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister once again, and Congress was the first party to get 206 seats during a coalition era of politics. Prime Ministers of the Republic of India from the Congress Party

Jawaharlal Nehru (19471964) Gulzarilal Nanda (May - June 1964 and in January 1966) Lal Bahadur Shastri (19641966) Indira Gandhi (19661977, 19801984) Rajiv Gandhi (19841989) P . V . Narasimha Rao (19911996) Manmohan Singh (2004 -)

Congress rally in New Delhi . In the 2004 general elections , the Congress alliance won the largest number of seats and got an assurance of support from the Left Front upsetting the Atal Behari Vajpayee -led National Democratic Alliance , which was variously forecast to win outright victory or at least emerge as the largest alliance. Shortly thereafter, Sonia Gandhi was nominated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to be the next Prime Minister. But in what was described as the dropping of a political bombshell , Sonia Gandhi refused to take the position based on her "inner voice". She backed eminent economist, former Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Dr. Manmohan Singh for the post of Prime Minister, and he was sworn-in as Prime Minister on 22 May 2004. Veerappa Moily , the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, was named the Honourable Minister for Law, Justice, and Company Affairs and was appointed to be the All India Congress Committee's General Secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh. Despite strong opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), AIADMK, SP, RJD, LJP, TDP, Communist Party of India , Communist Party of India ( Marxist ) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Indian National Congress won the elections again in 2009, the people gave their mandate to the Congress party and it was the only party to achieve 206 seats in 20 years. The

youth supported the Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi . The Congress's popularity has increased by 61% during the elections. Ideology and policies Historically, the party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes. However, in recent years the party had adopted centrist economic and social democratic agenda. Today, the INC advocates neo - liberal policies which includes populism, social liberalism, secularism and free enterprise system with government regulations such as public private partnership (PPP) model. Though it still believes in eradicating poverty, illiteracy and strongly supports the weaker section of the society. Social policy Social policy of the INC is based on Gandhian concept of Sarvodaya (upliftment of all sections of the society.) In particular INC gives special emphasis on the welfare of the economically and socially disadvantaged sections of the society. This includes "affirmative action" reservations for weaker sections of the society in education and employment, emphasis on employment generation for rural population (through schemes such as National Rural Employment Generation Scheme) etc. The party supports family planning with birth control but opposes elective abortion , in particular sex selective abortions and late term abortions. Economic policy Traditionally, Economic policy of the INC emphasized on the importance of the public sector aimed at establishing a "socialistic pattern of society". However, since the economic liberalizations initiated by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister in the early 1990s, the economic policy of INC has been changed somewhat and it is now adopted free market policies, though at the same time it is in favour of taking a cautious approach in proceeding with liberalization to ensure that the weaker sections are not affected too hard by the liberalization process. Foreign policy

Traditionally, nonalignment has been the bedrock of the foreign policy of the INC. Internal organization The organization developed by Mohandas Gandhi ' s reorganization of the Congress in the years of 1918 to 1920 has largely been retained till today. In every Indian state and union territory or pradesh , there is a Pradesh Congress Committee , which is the provincial unit of the party, responsible for directing political campaigns at local and state levels and assisting the campaigns for Parliamentary constituencies. Each PCC has a Working Committee of 10-15 key members, and the state president is the leader of the state unit. The Congressmen elected as members of the states legislative assemblies form the Congress Legislature Parties in the various state assemblies, and their chairperson is usually the party's nominee for Chief Ministership. The All India Congress Committee is formed of delegates sent from the PCCs around the country. The delegates elect various Congress committees, including the Congress Working Committee , which consists of senior party leaders and office bearers, and takes all important executive and political decisions. The President of the Indian National Congress is in effect the party's national leader, head of the organization, head of the Working Committee and all chief Congress committees, chief spokesman and the Congress choice to become the Prime Minister of India. Constitutionally, the president is to be elected by the vote of the PCCs and members of the AICC. However, this procedure has often been by-passed by the Working Committee, choosing to elect its own candidate as an emergency measure. The Congress Parliamentary Party is the group of elected MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha .It is headed by senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee . Since the current Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh is not an elected member of the Lok Sabha, Pranab is the CPP president. Dr.Singh is Leader of the Rajya Sabha. There is also a CLP leader in each state. The CLP (Congress Legislative Party) consists of all MLAs

in each state. It also comes under the CPP so Pranab is head of the MLAs also.In cases of states where the Congress is single-handedly ruling the government,the CLP leader is the Chief Minister . Congress in various states

Congress ruled states marked in dark green Congress is currently in power in seven states (Andhra Pradesh , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Mizoram and Manipur) where the party enjoys a majority of its own. In three other states Assam, Goa and Maharashtra it shares power with other alliance partners. In Tamil Nadu , where it lost power in 1967 assembly election, is not able to capture again since then. The party now provides outside support to the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam there in return for DMK's outside support for Congress in Puducherry [25] . In the remaining states and union territories, various opposition parties are in power. List of current Congress Chief Ministers

Dorjee Khandu - Arunachal Pradesh Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy - Andhra Pradesh Tarun Gogoi - Assam Sheila Dikshit - Delhi Digambar Kamat - Goa Bhupinder Singh Hooda - Haryana Prithviraj Chavan - Maharashtra Okram Ibobi Singh - Manipur Pu Lalthanhawla - Mizoram Vaithilingam - Puducherry Ashok Gehlot - Rajasthan D . D . Lapang - Meghalaya

List of presidents of the party

Main article: Congress President

Name of President Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee Life Span 29 Decem ber Year of Preside ncy 1885 Place of Conference Mumbai

18441906 Dadabhai Naoroji 4 Septe mber 18251917 10 Octobe r 18441906 1829 1892 1838 1918 4 August 18451915 August 18431908 29 Decem ber 18441906 4 Septe mber 18251917 1834 1908 10 Novem ber 18481925 5 April 18471902 11 July 1857-

1886

Calcutta

Badruddin Tyabji

1887

Madras

George Yule Sir William Wedderburn Sir Pherozeshah Mehta

1888 1889

Allahabad Mumbai

1890

Calcutta

P . Anandacharlu

1891

Nagpur

Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee

1892

Allahabad

Dadabhai Naoroji

1893

Lahore

Alfred Webb

1894

Madras

Surendranath Banerjea

1895

Pune

Rahimtulla M . Sayani Sir C . Sankaran Nair

1896 1897

Calcutta Amraoti

1934 Ananda Mohan Bose 23 Septe mber 18471906 13 August 18481909 2 Decem ber 18551923 2 August 18441936 10 Novem ber 18251917 1848 1909 1845 1915 9 May 18661915 4 Septe mber 18251917 23 Decem ber 18451921 23 Decem ber

1898

Madras

Romesh Chunder Dutt

1899

Lucknow

Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar

1900

Lahore

Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha

1901

Calcutta

Surendranath Banerjea

1902

Ahmedabad

Lalmohan Ghosh Sir Henry Cotton Gopal Krishna Gokhale

1903 1904 1905

Madras Mumbai Benares

Dadabhai Naoroji

1906

Calcutta

Rashbihari Ghosh Rashbihari Ghosh

1907

Surat

1908

Madras

18451921 Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Sir William Wedderburn Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar Rao Bahadur Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur Bhupendra Nath Bose Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha Ambica Charan Mazumdar Annie Besant 25 Decem ber 18611946 1838 1918 1864 1916 1857 1921 ?1919 1859 1924 March 18631928 1850 1922 1 Octobe r 18471933 25 Decem ber 18611946 31 August 18711933 6 May 1861- 6 Februa ry 1931 28 Januar

1909

Lahore

1910 1911

Allahabad Calcutta

1912

Bankipur

1913 1914 1915 1916

Karachi Madras Mumbai Lucknow

1917

Calcutta

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya

1918

Delhi

Syed Hasan Imam

1918

Mumbai (Special Session)

Pandit Motilal Nehru Lala Lajpat Rai

1919 1920

Amritsar Calcutta (Special

y 186517 Novem ber 1928 C. Vijayaraghavach ariar 185219 April 1944 186329 Decem ber 1927 5 Novem ber 187016 June 1925 10 Decem ber 1878- 4 Januar y 1931 188822 Februa ry 1958 2 Octobe r 186930 Januar y 1948 13 Februa ry 1879- 2 March 1949 Septe mber 1920

Session)

Nagpur

Hakim Ajmal Khan

1921

Ahmedabad

Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das

1922

Gaya

Maulana Mohammad Ali

1923

Kakinada

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

1923

Delhi (Special Session)

Mahatma Gandhi

1924

Belgaum

Sarojini Naidu

1925

Kanpur

S . Srinivasa Iyengar

1926

Gauhati

11, 187419 May 1941 25 Decem ber 188010 May 1936 6 May 1861- 6 Februa ry 1931 14 Novem ber 188927 May 1964 31 Octobe r 187515 Decem ber 1950 25 Decem ber 18611946 25 Decem ber 18611946 1886 1973 3 Decem ber 188428 Februa

Dr . M A Ansari

1927

Madras

Pandit Motilal Nehru

1928

Calcutta

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

1929 & 30

Lahore

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

1931

Karachi

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya

1932

Delhi

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya

1933

Calcutta

Nellie Sengupta Dr . Rajendra Prasad

1933 1934 & 35

Calcutta Mumbai

ry 1963 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru 14 Novem ber 188927 May 1964 14 Novem ber 188927 May 1964 23 Januar y 189718 August 1945? 23 Januar y 189718 August 1945? 188822 Februa ry 1958 188819 March 1982 24 Decem ber 188017 Decem ber 1959 1 August 1882- 1 July

1936

Lucknow

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

1936& 37

Faizpur

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

1938

Haripura

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

1939

Tripuri(Jaba lpur)

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

194046

Ramgarh

Acharya J . B . Kripalani

1947

Delhi

Dr Pattabhi Sitaraimayya

1948 & 49

Jaipur

Purushottam Das Tandon

1950

Nasik

1961 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru 14 Novem ber 188927 May 1964 14 Novem ber 188927 May 1964 14 Novem ber 188927 May 1964 21 Septe mber 19051977 21 Septe mber 19051977 21 Septe mber 19051977 21 Septe mber 19051977 21 Septe mber 19051977 19

1951 & 52

Delhi

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

1953

Hyderabad

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

1954

Kalyani

U N Dhebar

1955

Avadi

U N Dhebar

1956

Amritsar

U N Dhebar

1957

Indore

U N Dhebar

1958

Gauhati

U N Dhebar

1959

Nagpur

Indira Gandhi

1959

Delhi

Novem ber 191731 Octobe r 1984 Neelam Sanjiva Reddy 19 May 1913- 1 June 1996 19 May 1913- 1 June 1996 19 May 1913- 1 June 1996 15 July 1903- 2 Octobe r 1975 15 July 1903- 2 Octobe r 1975 15 July 1903- 2 Octobe r 1975 10 Decem ber 1902- 9 August 2000 10 Decem ber 1902- 9 August 2000 5 April 1908- 6 July 1960 Bangalore

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy

1961

Bhavnagar

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy

1962 & 63

Patna

K . Kamaraj

1964

Bhubanesw ar

K . Kamaraj

1965

Durgapur

K . Kamaraj

1966 & 67

Jaipur

S . Nijalingappa

1968

Hyderabad

S . Nijalingappa

1969

Faridabad

Jagjivan Ram

1970 & 71

Mumbai

1986 19 August 191826 Decem ber 1999 22 Februa ry 19141996 19 Novem ber 191731 Octobe r 1984 19 Novem ber 191731 Octobe r 1984 20 August 194421 May 1991 28 June 192123 Decem ber 2004 Novem ber 191924 Octobe r 2000

Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma

197274

Calcutta

Dev Kant Baruah

197577

Chandigarh

Indira Gandhi

197883

Delhi

Indira Gandhi

1983 -84

Calcutta

Rajiv Gandhi

1985 -91

Mumbai

P . V . Narasimha Rao

1992 -96

Tirupati

Sitaram Kesri

1997 -98

Kolkata

Sonia Gandhi

9 Decem ber 1946-

1998 present

Kolkata

2009 general elections The Indian National Congress-led coalition United Progressive Alliance (UPA), headed by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, won the plurality of votes in the general elections of 2009 and formed the government under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh . Bipan Chandra, Amales Tripathi, Barun De. Freedom Struggle . India: National Book Struggle. Further reading

The Indian National Congress: An Historical Sketch, by Frederick Marion De Mello. Published by H. Milford, Oxford university press, 1934. The Indian National Congress, by Hemendra Nath Das Gupta. Published by J. K. Das Gupta, 1946. Indian National Congress: A Descriptive Bibliography of India's Struggle for Freedom, by Jagdish Saran Sharma. Published by S. Chand, 1959. Social Factors in the Birth and Growth of the Indian National Congress Movement, by Ramparkash Dua. Published by S. Chand, 1967. Split in a Predominant Party: The Indian National Congress in 1969, by Mahendra Prasad Singh. Abhinav Publications, 1981.Concise History of the Indian National Congress, 1885-1947, by B. N. Pande, Nisith Ranjan Ray, Ravinder Kumar, Manmath Nath Das. Published by Vikas Pub. House, 1985. The Indian National Congress: An Analytical Biography, by Om P. Gautam. Published by B.R. Pub. Corp., 1985. A Century of Indian National Congress, 1885-1985, by Pran Nath Chopra, Ram Gopal, Moti Lal Bhargava. Published by Agam Prakashan, 1986. The Congress Ideology and Programme, 1920-1985, by Pitambar Datt Kaushik . Published by Gitanjali Pub. House, 1986.Struggling and Ruling: The Indian National Congress, 1885-1985, by Jim Masselos. Published by Sterling Publishers, 1987. The Encyclopedia of Indian National Congress, by A. Moin Zaidi, Shaheda Gufran Zaidi, Indian Institute of Applied Political Research. Published by S.Chand, 1987. Indian National Congress: A Reconstruction, by Iqbal Singh, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. Published by Riverdale Company, 1988. INC, the Glorious Tradition, by A. Moin Zaidi, Indian National Congress. AICC. Published by Indian Institute of Applied Political Research, 1989. Indian National Congress: A Select Bibliography, by Manikrao Hodlya Gavit, Attar Chand. Published by U.D.H. Pub. House, 1989. The Story of Congress Pilgrimage: 1885-1985, by A. Moin Zaidi, Indian National Congress. Published by Indian Institute of Applied Political Research, 1990.. (7 vols) Indian National Congress in England, by Harish P. Kaushik. Published by Friends Publications, 1991. Women in Indian National Congress, 1921-1931, by Rajan Mahan. Published by Rawat Publications, 1999.

History of Indian National Congress, 1885-2002, by Deep Chand Bandhu. Published by Kalpaz Publications,