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Sonia makes it almost 33 pc for women in CWC

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday constituted the party's apex decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee, by giving 25 per cent representation to women (including herself) in it.

"Madam has given 25 per cent representation to women in the (reconstituted) CWC and since there are three more vacancies, the percentage could increase," said party general Sercretary Oscar Fernandes, who briefed reporters along with party colleague Anand Sharma.

With Sonia as president, the other women CWC members are Ambika Sonia, veteran Mohsina Kidwai, Motamma from Karnataka and the party member from Andhra Pradesh, Sarojini Pulla Reddy.

Bringing the curtain down on widespread speculation in the media, the reconstituted CWC shows that Sonia has, by and large, retained her old CWC although she dropped the former Union minister K Vijayabhaskar Reddy and the veteran from Maharashtra, Sushil Kumar Shinde.

The Congress chief has made former West Bengal party chief A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury a permanent invitee of the CWC along with K Karunakaran and S C Jamir.

The special invitees to the CWC are Bhajan Lal, Chinta Mohan ( from Andhra Pradesh), veteran member from Gujarat Madhavsinh Solanki, Sonia loyalist Mani Shankar Aiyar, P M sayeed, former Central Election Authority chairman Ram Niwas Mirdha and Sunil Dutt.

"All chief ministers will be special invitees except Nagaland CM S C Jamir who will be s permanent invitee," Fernandes announced.

That Sonia brought back Ahmed Patel from the cold and inducted him into the CWC shows that she has lost none of her faith in him. When he resigned from the AICC, it was interpreted in political circles that the Congress chief had heeded the urging of her 'coterie' and preferred to let Patel go.

The presence of A K Antony in the CWC indicates that Sonia has clipped the senior party leader from Kerala K Karunakaran who is now a special invitee in the decision-making body.

Ambika Soni's induction as CWC member is widely being interpreted as as a reward by Sonia. Soni, before the Congress presidential polls, had quit her post as party general secretary to exclusively campaign for Sonia who was pitted against the lone challenger, the late Jitendra Prasada for the party chief's post.

Old war-horse Arjun Singh and fellow party Ghulam nabi Azad's presence in it indicates that despite media reports to the contrary, Sonia has preferred to stand by them and continues to value their advice.

In fact, the presence of other veterans in the CWC like Madhavrao Scindia, Kamal Nath, Manmohan singh, Motilal Vora, K Natwar Singh, Narain Dutt Tiwari, Oscar Fernandes, Pranab Mukherjee and R K Dhawan had also thrown up in bold relief that the Congress chief has preferred experienced hands rather than go in for young blood.

Mahavir Prasad's induction is apparently a move by Sonia to regain the party's lost ground in Bihar and the newly-created Jharkhand state.

While Pranab Mukherjee is entrusted with Sonia's 'agenda' of distancing the party from any political alliance including the BJP, Natwar Singh's presence in the CWC is a reward for guiding the party's line on foreign affairs. He has been an uncompromising critic of the Vajpayee government's foreign policy.

That Sonia has reaffirmed her faith in Oscar Fernandes has not come as a surprise to many. Fernandes has been a quietly effective party leader with a low profile and an extremely media-friendly approach. He has never been involved in any controversy which is why his induction into the party's highest decision-making body was a foregone conclusion.

Young party member Mukul Wasnik, a former Union minister in the Narasimha Rao government and former Youth Congress chief, is a young Dalit leader whose presence in the CWC is expected to 'energise' the SC votebank.

Ghani Khan Chowdhury and Karunakaran's induction as permanent invitees is being seen as a 'rebuff' for their occasional criticism of Sonia's leadership during the last one and a half years.

EARLIER REPORT:

Sonia names four women in new-look CWC

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