List of presidents of the Indian National Congress


The Indian National Congress is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. Congress led India to independence from Great Britain, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.
Congress is a secular party whose social democratic platform is generally considered to be on the centre-left of Indian politics. Congress' social policy is based upon the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya—the lifting up of all sections of society—which involves the improvement of the lives of economically underprivileged and socially marginalised people. The party primarily endorses social democracy—seeking to balance individual liberty and social justice, welfare and secularism. Its constitution states democratic socialism to be its ideal.
After the party's foundation in 1885, Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee
became its first president.  A total of sixty one people have served as the president of the Indian National Congress. Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving president of the Congress party, having held the office for nineteen years from 1998 to 2017.

History

During 1885–1933, the presidency had a term of 1 year only. Traditionally, the post rotated between prominent members of the party, successive terms for the same person being frowned upon. During Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership, he rarely held the Presidency of INC, even though he was always head of the Legislative Party.
Indira Gandhi however, institutionalized the practice of having the same person as the Congress President and the Prime Minister of India after she formed Congress in 1978. Her son Rajiv Gandhi continued that practice.
P. V. Narasimha Rao too held both the Congress President and the Prime Minister's posts. Sitaram Kesri held the post after INC was voted out. But as the party never returned to power under his leadership, he didn't hold the two posts together.
During 2000–09, INC did not host a conference for the first time in history. In 2004, when the INC was voted back into power, Manmohan Singh became the first Prime Minister, not to be the president of the party since Indira Gandhi established the practice of the president holding both positions. Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving president of the Congress party, having held the office for nineteen years from 1998 to 2017. Her son Rahul Gandhi, the last Congress President, resigned from the post on 3 July 2019. On 10 August, the Congress Working committee, elected Sonia Gandhi as the interim President. The decision led to critics saying that the Gandhi family is refusing to loosen its grip on the party’s internal power structures.

List of party presidents