Kharge constitutes 16-member CEC; Sonia, Rahul included

New Delhi, Sep 4: Days after reconstituting the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision making body, party President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday constituted a 16-member Central Election Committee (CEC) with CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as its members.

In an official communique, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said, "Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has constituted the Central Election Committee."

Besides Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the other members of the CEC include veteran party leader Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Salman Khurshid, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Chhattisgarh Deputy CM T.S. Singh Deo, K.J. Geogre, Pritam Singh, Mohammad Jawed, Amee Yajnik, P.L. Punia, Omkar Markam and Venugopal. 

The development came days ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in five states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telanagana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram -- and about seven months ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls. 

Kharge had recently reconstituted the CWC, almost 10 months after being appointed as the party chief. 

The reconstituted CWC has 39 regular members, 32 permanent invitees and 13 special invitees. These include 15 women and several new faces such as Sachin Pilot and Gourav Gogoi, who are among the regular members.