New CWC in Numbers: What's the Break-Up on Age, Caste, Religion, Gender & State?

The average age of the new Congress Working Committee is 62 years. But did they meet the '50 under 50' aim?

The expanded CWC will allow the party's high command to ensure 'balance' in the body across different criteria.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

About ten months after taking over as the Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge has constituted an 84-strong Congress Working Committee. This includes 39 members, 18 permanent invitees, 14 in-charges, nine special invitees and four ex-officio members.

The Quint closely examined the list of 84 and tried to answer the following questions.

• What's the average age of the CWC? Has the Congress managed to fulfil its promise of 50 percent members below the age of 50?

• How representative is the CWC from the point of view of Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and women?

• What's the state-wise representation like?

• How many of the members have won elections? How many have won in the past 15 years?

Here's what we found.

Did Congress Manage to Implement the '50 Under 50' Promise?

The average age of the CWC - all the 84 members including invitees and ex-officio members - comes to 62 years. If one looks just at the 39 members, the average age is a bit higher - 66 years.

We have not included five members out of 84 whose exact ages weren't publicly available so this calculation is among 79 out of 84 and 38 out of 39 among non-invitee members.

The '50 under 50' aim has far from been achieved with only 13 out of 84 being under 50. Among CWC members, which doesn't include oinvitees and ex-officio members, only three out of 39 are below the age of 50 - Kamaleshwar Patel, Sachin Pilot and Gaurav Gogoi.

Out of the 79 members we analysed 6 are above 80 years of age, 13 are in their 70s, 31 in their 60s, 16 in their 50s, 11 in their 40s and two in their 30s.

Among the 38 CWC members we looked at, excluding invitees and ex-officio members, five are above 80, nine are in their 70s, 15 in their 60s, six in their 50s and three in their 40s.

Caste, Religion and Gender Diversity

Out of the 84 members, there are 10 Dalits, 17 from religious minorities, four tribals and 15 women. There are 34 members who belong to one or two of these categories.

Some of the members are in two categories, for instance four of the Dalit members belong to religious minorities - three are Buddhist and one is Sikh. Two of the ST members are Christians.

Among the 15 women, three are Dalits, three from religious minorities (all Christians) and one is from an Adivasi background.

If one looks at groups within religious minorities, there are five Muslims and Christians each, four Sikhs and three Buddhists.

State-Wise Representation

For this, we listed a person's state as the state where they have contested elections (not Rajya Sabha) or have been part of party units or frontals. If there are individuals who don't fall in this category, we have used the permanent address given on the party website.

Even after that there are five members whose domicile isn't clear at least based on the information provided in the public domain.

Maharashtra has eight members in the CWC, the highest for any state.

There are seven members from Delhi. Out of these four have contested elections in Delhi and three have been listed under Delhi mainly because of the permanent address provided.

Then comes Kerala, with six members.

In the case of Rahul Gandhi, who has represented both a seat from Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, we have listed his state as Kerala as that reflects his present status.

Rajasthan and Karnataka, both big states where the Congress is in power, have five members each.

Surprisingly, there are four members from Andhra Pradesh, a state where the Congress has become a marginal player.

Two other states with four members are Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

How Many Have Won Elections?

Out of the 84 members, 62 have won MP or MLA elections in the past while 22 haven't won any MP and MLA elections.

If one looks at the last 15 years, 54 have won elections in this period while 30 haven't.