As BJP goes gen-next with Nitin Nabin, why Congress has struggled with ’50 under 50′ push
Of 85 CWC members and its permanent and special invitees, only 12 or 14.1% are under 50, more than three years after Congress Chintin Shivir resolved to ensure 50% youth representation at all levels
Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi before the CWC meeting in Delhi (Express Photo: Amit Mehra/File) While Nitin Nabin, 45, has taken over as the BJP’s youngest-ever national president, marking a generational shift in the leadership of the ruling party, the principal Opposition Congress continues to struggle over the issue of promoting its young faces more than three years after it resolved to ensure 50% representation for youths across all levels of its organisational structure.
A look at the 36-member Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, shows an average age of 67 years, while for the CWC’s 34 permanent invitees, it is 61. The average age of the CWC’s 15 special invitees is 52 years. The mean age of the Congress leaders in these three categories is 60 years. Of the total 85 Congress leaders in the three categories, only 12 or 14.1% are under the age of 50.
The CWC, headed by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, comprises the party’s senior-most leaders such as Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, A K Antony, P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh, among others. Only two of them — former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi — are under the age of 50. While Pilot is 48, Gogoi is 43.
This situation in the Congress is in sharp contrast to the “50 under 50” formula adopted by the party at its Chintan Shivir held in Udaipur in May 2022. The resolution, adopted as part of the Chintan Shivir Declaration, aimed to promote youth representation in the Congress by ensuring 50% of party positions at all levels for individuals below 50 years of age.
“Taking into consideration the demographics of India, it is important to ensure that 50% of the office-bearers in the CWC, Pradesh Congress Committees, District Congress Committees, Block Congress Committees and Mandal Congress Committees are below the age of 50,” the resolution stated.
However, according to several Congress leaders who spoke to The Indian Express, the party has failed to implement the Udaipur Declaration in earnest, despite suffering multiple electoral setbacks, the latest being in Bihar last year, where it won just six of the 61 Assembly seats it contested.
Party leaders cite a range of reasons for this failure, including a lack of political will and organisational capacity. “The Congress needs to promote young leaders. The Udaipur resolutions grabbed headlines and sounded good when they were adopted, but in reality the party prioritises winnability and popularity. This pushes it towards older, established leaders. Also, being out of power in many states has prevented the party from choosing young leaders. Today, power attracts young and capable people, not idealism,” an All India Congress Committee (AICC) member said.
A look at the three states where the Congress is currently in power also reflects a similar scenario. In the party-led Telangana government headed by 56-year-old Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, the average age of ministers is 61, with none of his 15 ministers under the age of 50. The youngest minister is 54-year-old D Anasuya, who heads the Panchayati Raj and Rural Development department.
In neighbouring Karnataka, the Congress government is headed by 77-year-old CM Siddaramaiah, where the average age of ministers is 65. The only minister under 50 in the 22-member Siddaramaiah Cabinet is Priyank Kharge (47). Apart from Siddaramaiah, seven ministers — K Venkatesh (77), K H Muniyappa (77), K J George (76), G Parameshwara (74), H C Mahadevappa (72), H K Patil (72) and Ramalinga Reddy (72) — are over 70.
In Himachal Pradesh, the 11-member Congress Cabinet led by CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has an average age of 59. The youngest minister is 36-year-old Vikramaditya Singh, son of ex-CM late Virbhadra Singh. Apart from Vikramaditya, two other ministers — Yadvinder Goma (39) and Anirudh Singh (48) — are under 50, while the oldest minister is 85-year-old Col Dhani Ram Shandil.
However, among the positive signs for the party over the issue is the relatively lower average age of its state unit presidents, which stands at 58. Six state Congress chiefs — Gogoi (Assam, 43 years), Deepak Baij (Chhattisgarh, 44), Amit Patkar (Goa, 41), Amit Chavda (Gujarat, 49), Vinay Kumar (Himachal Pradesh, 47) and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring (Punjab, 48) — are under 50. The oldest state Congress president is Lal Thanzara of Mizoram, aged 76.
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