List of All Presidents of the Indian National Congress (1885 to 2023)

The Indian National Congress (INC), popularly known as Congress, is a major political party of India. One of the oldest political party of the country, INC played an important role in gaining independence from British rules under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Since its formation around 137 years ago, the party has seen over 90 presidents, many of whom were social reformers and freedom fighters. The party is still going strong and has currently formed a strong opposition to the ruling party (Bhartiya Janta Party). Here in this article, you will find a list of all presidents of the Indian National Congress (1885 to 2023).

Presidents of the Indian National Congress (Founding years 1885 to 1900)

When the Indian National Congress was formed in 1885, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee became the first ever president of INC. The time period from 1885 to 1990 was considered as the founding years of INC and during this period, the party has seen 16 different presidents, changing every year. The table below presents a list of presidents of Congress from 1885 to 1900 along with the year they were appointed and their place of conference.

Presidents of the Indian National Congress (Pre-independence era 1901 to 1947)

The pre-independence era Indian National Congress has seen some great freedom movement fighters and leaders as its presidents. Many social reformers and scholars too have acted as the president of Indian National Congress in the period from 1901 and 1947. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Annie Besant, etc were among the social reformers who acted as INC’s president. Among freedom fighters were Lala Lajpat Rai, Abul Kalam Azad, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose and many others. Check out the list of all presidents of Indian National Congress before India got its independence.

• 1901- Dinshaw Edulji Wacha (Calcutta)
• 1902- Surendranath Banerjee (Ahmedabad)
• 1903- Lalmohan Ghosh (Madras)
• 1904- Henry John Stedman Cotton (Bombay)
• 1905- Gopal Krishna Gokhale (Banaras)
• 1906- Dadabhai Naoroji (Calcutta)
• 1907- Rashbihari Ghosh (Surat)
• 1908- Rashbihari Ghosh (Madras)

• 1909- Madan Mohan Malaviya (Lahore)
• 1910- William Wedderburn (Allahabad)
• 1911- Bishan Narayan Dar (Calcutta)
• 1912- Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar (Bankipore)
• 1913- Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur (Karachi)
• 1914- Bhupendra Nath Bose (Madras)
• 1915- Satyendra Prasanno Sinha (Bombay)
• 1916- Ambica Charan Mazumdar (Lucknow)

• 1917- Annie Besant (Calcutta)
• 1918- Madan Mohan Malaviya (Delhi)
• 1918- Syed Hasan Imam (Bombay) (special session)
• 1919- Motilal Nehru (Amritsar)
• 1920- Lala Lajpat Rai (Calcutta)
• 1920- C. Vijayaraghavachariar (Nagpur)
• 1921- Hakim Ajmal Khan (Ahmedabad)
• 1922- Chittaranjan Das (Gaya)
• 1923- Mohammad Ali Jouhar (Kakinada)
• 1923- Abul Kalam Azad (Delhi) (Special Session)

• 1924- Mahatma Gandhi (Belgaum)
• 1925- Sarojini Naidu (Kanpur)
• 1926- S. Srinivasa Iyengar (Guwahati)
• 1927- Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (Madras)
• 1928- Motilal Nehru (Calcutta)
• 1929- Jawaharlal Nehru (Lahore)

• 1930- Jawaharlal Nehru (Karachi)
• 1931- Vallabhbhai Patel (Karachi)
• 1932- Madan Mohan Malaviya (Delhi)
• 1933- Nellie Sengupta (Calcutta)
• 1934- Rajendra Prasad (Bombay)
• 1935- Rajendra Prasad (Lucknow)
• 1936- Jawaharlal Nehru (Lucknow)
• 1937- Jawaharlal Nehru (Faizpur)
• 1938- Subhas Chandra Bose (Haripura)
• 1939- Subhas Chandra Bose (Tewar)
• 1939 (March)- Rajendra Prasad (Tewar)
• 1940–46- Abul Kalam Azad (Ramgarh)
• 1946–47- J. B. Kripalani (Meerut)

Check: List of all Presidents of BJP

Presidents of the Indian National Congress (Post-independence era 1948 to 2023)

After post independence era, the party began to showing a little stability and many prominent members of the party began elected for longer sessions. The title of the only major party of India that INC enjoyed before independence started to change in this era. Formation of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) played a major role and it emerged as a staunch opposition to the Indian National Congress. Check out the list of all presidents of Indian National Congress after India got its independence.