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Indian National Congress

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The Indian National Congress (INC) is one of the two major parties in the political
system of Republic of India, the President of the Indian National Congress is the
elected head of the party responsible for managing the party's relationship with
the general public, developing and communicating party policy especially on
election platforms. The President of the All India Congress Committee, and
therefore of the Indian National Congress Party (INC) as a whole, is known as the
Congress President.

Since the party was established in 1885, 60 people have served as president, the
first, Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee presided over the first session of the Indian
National Congress held at Bombay in 1885 from 28 December to 31 December. The most
recently serving president is Rahul Gandhi, the president of INC at the time of
India's independence was J. B. Kripalani. Annie Besant was the first woman
president of INC whereas, Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman president.
There are six members of Nehru�Gandhi family who have been Congress Presidents.

Contents
1 History
2 Presidents
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
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 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 after the first Congress split of
1969. Her son Rajiv Gandhi continued that practice.

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 INC 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. Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving
president of the Congress party, having held the office for nineteen years from
1998 to 2017.[1] Her son Rahul Gandhi is the current Congress President.