Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress ( pronunciation ) (INC, often called the Congress), is one of two major political parties in India; the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. Congress is one of the largest and oldest democratically run political parties in the world. The party was founded in 1885 during the British Raj; its founders include Allan Octavian Hume (a prominent member of the Theosophical Society), Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Wacha. In the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries, Congress became a pivotal participant in the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its opposition to British colonial rule in India.

After independence in 1947, Congress became India's dominant political party; as of 2015, in the 15 general elections since independence, it has won an outright majority on six occasions and has led the ruling coalition a further four times, heading the central government for 49 years. There have been seven Congress Prime Ministers, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru (1947–64), and the most recent Manmohan Singh (2004–14). The party's social liberal platform is generally considered to be on the centre-left of Indian politics.

Indian National Congress (Organisation)

The Indian National Congress (Organisation) or Congress (O) was a political party in India formed when Indira Gandhi (the then Prime Minister of India) broke away from the leadership of the Congress Party (which became known as Congress (R)). As Indira had control over the state machinery, her faction was recognized as the "real" INC by the Election Commission of India, so the rump INC became known as the INC(O), or informally the "Old Congress". Kingmaker Kamaraj and later Morarji Desai became the leader of the INC(O). The Indian National Congress (Organisation) was also occasionally referred to as the Syndicate (by its opponents).

On 12 November 1969 Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Congress party for violating the party discipline. The party finally split with Indira Gandhi setting up a rival organization, which came to be known as Congress (R) – R for Requisition. In the All India Congress Committee, 446 of its 705 members walked over to Indira's side.

Indian National Congress (Sheik Hassan)

Indian National Congress (Sheikh Hassan) was a group of politicians from Goa which broke away from the Opposition Indian National Congress on August 17, 2002.

This group was led by the former Speaker of the Goa assembly, Haji Sheikh Hassan Haroon. Five members of the legislative assembly joined the split. The new party declared its support to the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Goa People's Congress government. However, four of the MLAs quickly deserted Sheikh Hassan and joined the BJP, the dominant partner of the then ruling coalition, which came to power in Goa mainly by splitting up the Congress and other political parties.

In October 2002 INC(SH) was included in the government of Goa. Sheikh Hassan was appointed minister of industry and handicraft and his party colleague Prakash Velip was appointed minister of cooperation, official languages, among other portfolios.

In the state elections 2002 Sheikh Hassan stood as a BJP candidate, and lost. Later, following the anti-Muslim communal riots in Curchorem, Sheikh Hassan moved away from the BJP (which was out of power by this time, in early 2006) and cited the Curchorem violence as the reason for doing so. The current status of INC(SH) is unclear.

Indian National Congress (Urs)

The Indian National Congress (Urs) was a breakaway faction of the Congress (I) led by D. Devaraj Urs. It broke away from the parent party in 1978 following Indira Gandhi's drubbing in the 1977 General Elections. Urs took with him many legislators from Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Goa including future Union Ministers and Chief Ministers, Yashwantrao Chavan, Dev Kant Baruah, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, A.K. Antony, Sharad Pawar, Sarat Chandra Sinha, Priyaranjan Das Munshi and K.P. Unnikrishnan.

Subsequently Devaraj Urs joined Janata Party; Yashwantrao Chavan, Brahmananda Reddy, and Chidambaram Subramaniam joined Congress (Indira); and A.K. Antony split from Congress (Urs) to form Congress (A) in Kerala. When Sharad Pawar took over the party presidency in October 1981, the name of the party was changed to Indian Congress (Socialist)

Leaders