The executive committee of the Congress in Parliament was constituted on Monday. Of its 25 members, 16 are from the Lok Sabha, and seven from the Rajya Sabha.
Ironically, this time, the Congress has more MPs in the Upper House (68) than in the Lower House (44). The RS MPs, therefore, pitched for a larger share in the executive. But in the end, the party’s internal rules held sway and the LS MPs got a bigger chunk, as in the past.
The two secretaries of the executive committee are Kodakunnil Suresh (LS) and Rajiv Shukla (RS), while the treasurer is T. Subbarami Reddy.
The LS members include four from the northeast – Biren Singh Engti, Ninong Ering, T. Meinya and Vincent H. Pala; former chief minister Ashok Chavan and former Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav (both from Maharashtra); former Union Food Minister K.V. Thomas and M.I. Shanavas (both from Kerala); K.H. Munniyappa and R. Dhruvnarayan (both from Karnataka); Mausam Noor (West Bengal); Ranjeet Ranjan (Bihar); Nandi Yellaiah (Telangana); Ravneet Singh (Punjab) and Tamradhwaj Sahu (Chhattisgarh).
The RS MPs are Anand Bhaskar Rapolu, Ashk Ali Tak, former Planning Commission member Bhalchandra Mungekar, Hussain Umar Dalwai, J.D. Seelam, Pradeep Bhattacharya and Viplove Thakur.
