New Delhi: The Congress has often raised the demand to make non-Gandhi president. This time, no member of the Gandhi family is ready to become president. Since independence, the command of the Congress party has been largely handled by the Gandhi family.
The Congress party formed in 1885 has so far had 88 presidents. Of these, 18 presidents have been formed after independence. Out of these 73 years after independence, the Nehru-Gandhi family has been the president of the party for 38 years. Whereas, 35 years non-Nehru-Gandhi family has taken command. The last president in the Congress party was Sitaram Kesari, who did not come from the Gandhi family. Sitaram Kesari was the Congress President from 1996 to 1998.
Since independence, 13 presidents from non-Gandhi families have been formed. These 13 presidents have commanded the Congress for 35 years. The first president of the Congress after independence was JB Kripalani, who was outside the Gandhi family. Today, voice is being raised once again on this issue. Now the thing to be seen will be in which hands of the President of the Congress party.
Who was the president of the Gandhi-Nehru family for how many years?
Jawaharlal Nehru was the president from 1951 to 1954.
Indira Gandhi became president in 1959. Indira was again president from 1978 to 1984.
Rajiv Gandhi became president from 1985 to 1991 after Indira Gandhi’s death.
Sonia Gandhi became the president in 1998, 7 years after Rajiv Gandhi’s death, which she held until 2017.
After that, after the resignation of Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi is the president again from August 2019.
Rahul Gandhi was the president from December 2017 to August 2019.
President of non-Gandhi family
Congress President’s term
JB Kripalani 1947
Pattabhi Sitaramaiya 1948 to 1949
Purushottam Das Tandon 1950
UN Dhebar 1955 to 1959
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy 1960 to 1963
K. Kamaraj 1964 to 1967
N. Nijalingappa 1968 to 1969
Jagjivan Ram 1970 to 1971
Shankar Dayal Sharma 1972 to 1974
Devkant Barua 1975 to 1977
Kasu Brahmananda Reddy 1977 to 1978
PV Narasimha Rao 1992 to 1996
Sitaram Kesari 1996 to 1998
Non-Gandhi family president, performance in elections better
The first Lok Sabha elections were held in 1952 after independence. From then until 1975 there was no other party in the option of the Congress, the parties which were there was no self-interest in the people. However, after the Emergency in 1975, the Congress had to face defeat for the first time in the 1977 elections. The Congress was reduced to 153 seats in this election. After this defeat, Indira Gandhi became president again and won the Congress government again, winning 351 seats in the 1980 election.
Since independence, 17 Lok Sabha elections have been held in the country. Of these, during 10 elections, the President of the Congress has been from the Gandhi family, while 7 times have been from the non-Gandhi family. The Congress has lost three elections as president of non-Gandhi family, while the party has lost four elections as president of Gandhi family. In this context, the success rate of non-Gandhi family in the general elections has been 57%.
From Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi, in 5 general elections, the Congress president was from a non-Gandhi family and the Congress came to power in all elections except the 1977 elections. Whereas, between Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, only two elections were held from non-Gandhi family and both times the Congress had to face defeat.
Sonia Gandhi then-interim president
A meeting of the Congress Working Committee was called on Monday for the new president of the party. In which there was a discussion about the new president. In the meeting that lasted for hours together, the big leaders of the Congress commented very harshly on each other. Rahul Gandhi described 23 leaders who had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi about the entire carpet president. Sonia was once again made the interim president for six months after the day-long brawl. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that, “The new president will be elected by electing inside the party.” Which will be completed in six months. Till then Sonia Gandhi will continue to be the President of Congress. “
