List of presidents of the Indian National Congress facts for kids

Quick facts for kids President of the Indian National Congress
Incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge since 26 October 2022 (2022-10-26)
Residence	24 Akbar Road, New Delhi
Appointer	Committee consisting of members of the Indian National Congress from the National and State Committees
Term length	no term limit
Constituting instrument	Constitution of the Indian National Congress
Precursor	Sonia Gandhi
Formation	28 December 1885 (1885-12-28)
First holder	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee (1885–1886)

The president of the Indian National Congress is the chief executive of the Indian National Congress (INC), one of the principal political parties in India. Constitutionally, the president is elected by an electoral college composed of members drawn from the Pradesh Congress Committees and members of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). In the event of any emergency because of any cause such as the death or resignation of the president elected as above, the most senior general secretary discharges the routine functions of the president until the Working Committee appoints a provisional president pending the election of a regular president by the AICC. The president of the party has effectively been the party's national leader, head of the party's organisation, head of the Working Committee, the chief spokesman, and all chief Congress committees.

After the party's foundation in December 1885, Wyomesh Chandra Banerjee became its first president. From 1885 to 1933, the presidency had a term of one year only. From 1933 onwards, there was no such fixed term for the president. During Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership, he rarely held the Presidency of INC, even though he was always head of the Parliamentary Party. Despite being a party with a structure, Congress under Indira Gandhi did not hold any organisational elections after 1978. In 1978, Gandhi split from the INC and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I), which the national election commission declared to be the real Indian National Congress for the 1980 general election. Gandhi institutionalised the practice of having the same person as the Congress president and the prime minister of India after the formation of Congress (I). Her successors Rajiv Gandhi and P. V. Narasimha Rao also continued that practice. Nonetheless, in 2004, when the Congress was voted back into power, Manmohan Singh became the first and only prime minister not to be the president of the party since establishment of the practice of the president holding both positions.

A total of 61 people have served as the president of the Indian National Congress since its formation. Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving president of the party, having held the office for over twenty years from 1998 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2022. The latest election of president was held on 17 October 2022, in which Mallikarjun Kharge became the new president defeating Shashi Tharoor in the 2022 Indian National Congress presidential election.

List of party presidents

The founding years (1885–1900)

List of presidents during 1885–1900

No.	Year(s) of presidency	Leader	Portrait	Place of conference	Reference(s)
1	December 1885	Bonnerjee, Womesh ChunderWomesh Chunder Bonnerjee		Bombay
2	December 1886	Naoroji, DadabhaiDadabhai Naoroji		Calcutta
3	December 1887	Tyabji, BadruddinBadruddin Tyabji		Madras
4	December 1888	Yule, GeorgeGeorge Yule		Allahabad
5	December 1889	Wedderburn, WilliamWilliam Wedderburn		Bombay
6	December 1890	Mehta, PherozeshahPherozeshah Mehta		Calcutta
7	December 1891	Anandacharlu, PanapakkamPanapakkam Anandacharlu		Nagpur
8	December 1892	Womesh Chandra Banerjee		Allahabad
9	December 1893	Dadabhai Naoroji		Lahore
10	December 1894	Webb, AlfredAlfred Webb		Madras
11	December 1895	Banerjee, SurendranathSurendranath Banerjee		Poona
12	December 1896	Sayani, Rahimtulla M.Rahimtulla M. Sayani		Calcutta
13	December 1897	Nair, C. SankaranC. Sankaran Nair		Amaravati
14	December 1898	Bose, AnandamohanAnandamohan Bose		Madras
15	December 1899	Dutt, Romesh ChunderRomesh Chunder Dutt		Lucknow
16	December 1900	Chandavarkar, N. G.N. G. Chandavarkar		Lahore

The pre-independence era (1901–1947)

List of presidents during 1901–1947

No.	Year(s) of presidency	Name	Portrait	Place of conference	Reference(s)
17	December 1901	Wacha, Dinshaw EduljiDinshaw Edulji Wacha		Calcutta
18	December 1902	Banerjee, SurendranathSurendranath Banerjee		Ahmedabad
19	December 1903	Ghosh, LalmohanLalmohan Ghosh		Madras
20	December 1904	Cotton, Henry John StedmanHenry John Stedman Cotton		Bombay
21	December 1905	Gokhale, Gopal KrishnaGopal Krishna Gokhale		Benares
22	December 1906	Naoroji, DadabhaiDadabhai Naoroji		Calcutta
23	December 1907	Ghosh, RashbihariRashbihari Ghosh		Surat
24	December 1908			Madras
25	December 1909	Malaviya, Madan MohanMadan Mohan Malaviya		Lahore
26	December 1910	Wedderburn, WilliamWilliam Wedderburn		Allahabad
27	December 1911	Dar, Bishan NarayanBishan Narayan Dar		Calcutta
28	December 1912	Mudholkar, Raghunath NarasinhaRaghunath Narasinha Mudholkar		Bankipore
29	December 1913	Bahadur, Nawab Syed MuhammadNawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur		Karachi
30	April 1914	Bose, Bhupendra NathBhupendra Nath Bose		Madras
31	December 1915	Sinha, Satyendra PrasannoSatyendra Prasanno Sinha		Bombay
32	December 1916	Mazumdar, Ambica CharanAmbica Charan Mazumdar		Lucknow
33	December 1917	Besant, AnnieAnnie Besant		Calcutta
34	August 1918	Imam, Syed HasanSyed Hasan Imam		Bombay (special session)
35	December 1918	Malaviya, Madan MohanMadan Mohan Malaviya		Delhi
36	December 1919	Nehru, MotilalMotilal Nehru		Amritsar
37	1920	Rai, Lala LajpatLala Lajpat Rai		Calcutta (Special Session)
38	December 1920	Vijayaraghavachariar, C.C. Vijayaraghavachariar		Nagpur
39	December 1921	Khan, Hakim AjmalHakim Ajmal Khan		Ahmedabad
40	December 1922	Das, ChittaranjanChittaranjan Das		Gaya
41	1923	Jauhar, Mohammad AliMohammad Ali Jauhar		Kakinada
42	September 1923	Azad, Abul KalamAbul Kalam Azad		Delhi (Special Session)
43	December 1924	Gandhi, MahatmaMahatma Gandhi		Belgaum
44	April 1925	Naidu, SarojiniSarojini Naidu		Kanpur
45	December 1926	Iyengar, S. SrinivasaS. Srinivasa Iyengar		Guwahati
46	December 1927	Ansari, Mukhtar AhmedMukhtar Ahmed Ansari		Madras
47	1928	Nehru, MotilalMotilal Nehru		Calcutta
48	1929	Nehru, JawaharlalJawaharlal Nehru		Lahore
49	1930			Karachi
50	1931	Patel, VallabhbhaiVallabhbhai Patel		Karachi
51	1932	Malaviya, Madan MohanMadan Mohan Malaviya		Delhi
52	1933	Sengupta, NellieNellie Sengupta		Calcutta
53	1934	Prasad, RajendraRajendra Prasad		Bombay
54	1935			Lucknow
55	1936	Nehru, JawaharlalJawaharlal Nehru		Lucknow
56	1937			Faizpur
57	1938	Bose, Subhas ChandraSubhas Chandra Bose		Haripura
58	1939			Tewar, Madhya Pradesh (then Tripuri)
59	1939 (March)	Prasad, RajendraRajendra Prasad		Tewar, Madhya Pradesh (then Tripuri)
60	1940–46 Duration of World war 2	Azad, Abul KalamAbul Kalam Azad		Ramgarh
61	1946 (July-Sept)	Jawaharlal Nehru
62	1946	Kripalani, J. B.J. B. Kripalani		Meerut
63	1947

The post-independence era (1948–present)

List of presidents since independence

No.	Year(s) of Presidency	Name	Portrait	Place of Conference	Reference(s)
64	1948	Sitaramayya, Bhogaraju PattabhiBhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya		Jaipur
65	1949			Jaipur
66	1950	Tandon, Purushottam DasPurushottam Das Tandon		Nashik
67	1951	Nehru, JawaharlalJawaharlal Nehru		Delhi
68	1952			Delhi
69	1953			Hyderabad
70	1954			Kalyani
71	1955	Dhebar, U. N.U. N. Dhebar		Avadi
72	1956			Amritsar
73	1957			Indore
74	1958			Gauhati
75	1959			Nagpur
76	1959	Gandhi, IndiraIndira Gandhi		Delhi (special session)
73	1960	Reddy, Neelam SanjivaNeelam Sanjiva Reddy		Bengaluru
74	1961			Bhavnagar
75	1962–1963			Patna
76	1964	Kamaraj, K.K. Kamaraj		Bhubaneswar
77	1965			Durgapur
78	1966–1967			Jaipur
79	1968	Nijalingappa, S.S. Nijalingappa		Hyderabad
80	1969			Faridabad
81	1970–1971	Ram, JagjivanJagjivan Ram		Mumbai
82	1972–74	Sharma, Shankar DayalShankar Dayal Sharma		Kolkata
83	1975–77	Barua, DevakantaDevakanta Barua		Chandigarh
84	1977–78	Reddy, Kasu BrahmanandaKasu Brahmananda Reddy		Chandigarh
85	1978–83	Indira Gandhi		New Delhi
85	1983			Kolkata
86	1985–1991	Gandhi, RajivRajiv Gandhi		Mumbai
87	1992	Rao, P. V. NarasimhaP. V. Narasimha Rao		Tirupati
88	1993			Surajkund
89	1994			Delhi
90	1996–1998	Kesri, SitaramSitaram Kesri		Kolkata
91	1998–2001	Gandhi, SoniaSonia Gandhi		New Delhi
92	2001–2004			Bengaluru
93	2004–2006			New Delhi
94	2006–2010			Hyderabad
95	2010–2017			New Delhi
96	2017–2019	Gandhi, RahulRahul Gandhi		New Delhi
97	2019–2022	Sonia Gandhi		Jaipur
98	2022–Incumbent	Mallikarjun Kharge		New Delhi

See also

• List of chief ministers from the Indian National Congress
• List of state presidents of the Indian National Congress
• List of presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party