Indian National Congress (INC) or the Congress party and is one of the major political parties in India. Indian National Congress was established in 1885, on the initiation of A. O. Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. Henceforth, the Indian National Congress became the mentor in the Independence Movement, with over 15 million Indians postulated in its organisations and over 70 million associates in its conflict against the British Empire.

The Congress Party was a moderate reform party until 1917, when it was taken over by its "extremist" home rule wing. In the 1920s and 30s under Gandhji`s guidance the congress promoted non-cooperation movement to protest the feebleness of the constitutional reforms of 1919. Congress became nation`s dominant political party after the Indian independence in 1947. Presently in the 14th Lok Sabha (2004-2009), 145 Congress members, the largest congregation amongst all parties, serves in the house. Supported by the Left Front, the party in the present time is the chief member of the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition.

The history behind the Indian National Congress can be divided into two parts, namely the pre-independence era (when the party was at the head of struggle in independence) and the post-independence era (when the party enjoyed a prominent place in Indian politics, ruling the country for 48 of the 60 years since independence in 1947).

The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 with the objective of prevailing a bigger share in government for enlightened Indians. Initially, however, it was not established to oppose the British rule. Once a year, the Congress met during the month of December. With the approval of the then-Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, a Scotsman and Allan Octavian Hume, the first meet was held in Mumbai. The first President of INC was Womesh Chandra Bonerjee. As time passed the demands of the Congress became more radical and the party turned very active in the independence movement. Radicalism resulted into division within the party. The Congress was divided into the Garam Dal of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, or Extremists (literally "hot faction"), and the Naram Dal of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, or Moderates (literally "soft faction").

After Mahatma Gandhi`s induction in Congress and his Satyagraha art of revolution, the party grew stronger along with the participations of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the nation`s first Prime Minister), Dr. Rajendra Prasad (the nation`s first President), Khan Mohammad Abbas Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, Jivatram Kripalani and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Under Gandhi`s influence, Congress became the first integrated mass organisation in the country that brought together millions of people by working against caste differences, poverty, untouchability, religious and ethnic boundaries. Movements, like Quit India, remained the most impregnable political and revolutionary upheavals in India without a doubt. The 1929 Lahore session of Congress was held under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru. The session was significant indeed as the goal of INC was declared in the form of "Poorna Swaraj" (complete independence). Gandhi, by now, was considered the leader and a mass icon of the party.

After independence Indian National Congress stayed in power for thirty continuous years till 1977. Mahatma Gandhi was murdered in 1948. Later, in 1950, Sardar Patel also passed away. At this stage Jawaharlal Nehru took charge of the party whilst looking after the nation as well. He took some revolutionary decisions like adopting secularism, socialist economic policies and a non-aligned foreign policy. It became the distinctive characteristic of the modern Congress Party. Nehru led Congress into consecutive awe-inspiring absolute majority in the elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962. After his death in 1964, emptiness engulfed the party. Lal Bahadur Shastri was then chosen to fill in the gap. After him, Indira Gandhi was the preferred choice.

Indian National Congress faced its first serious challenge in 1967, when Samyukt Vidhanayak Dal, won control over various states in the Hindi belt and majority of the party leadership challenged Indira Gandhi. This led to a conflict within the party itself and as a result they split up. Indira Gandhi established a separate Indian National Congress. In the first phase the party was known as Congress (R). But later on it came to be known as the New Congress. And the official Indian National Congress became Indian National Congress (Organisation) led by Kamaraj. Indira Gandhi ultimately became the Prime Minister of India in 1966. In 1975, she proclaimed a state of National emergency. However this led to the constitution of many Congress factions.

After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, her son, Rajiv Gandhi took on as the Congress leader and led the party to victory with a large majority in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections. After Rajiv Gandhi, eminent politicians like P.V. Narasimha Rao (from 1991 to1996) and Manmohan Singh (since 2004) became the Prime Ministers of India. Besides them, the party has witnessed a number of politicians who had devotedly worked to strengthen the organisation further. The illustrious list includes names like Sitaram Kesari, Rajesh Pilot, Ghani Khan Choudhury, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Kalpnath Rai, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ajit Jogi, Rajeev Shukla, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia and several others.

The Congress party has state units with state presidents. In the respective state assemblies the Congressmen choose members of the state legislative assemblies by votes, to form the Congress Legislature Parties. Delegates sent from the Pradesh Congress Committees around the country form the All India Congress Committee. In effect, the President of the Indian National Congress is the party`s national leader, head of the organisation, head of the Working Committee and all chief Congress committees, chief spokesmen and the Congress choose to become the Prime Minister of India. In 1975, a merger took place between Sikkim and India. The Sikkim National Congress of Kazi Lendup Dorjee also merged with the Indian National Congress.

The organization developed by Mahatma Gandhi`s reorganization of the Indian National Congress in the years of 1918 to 1920 has largely been preserved till today. The President of the Indian National Congress is effective as the party`s national leader, head of the organization, head of the Working Committee and all major Indian Congress committees, chief spokesman and the Congress choice to become the Prime Minister of India. Constitutionally, the president is to be elected by the vote of the PCCs and members of the AICC. However, this procedure has often been by-passed by the Working Committee, choosing to elect its own candidate as an emergency appraisal. The Congress Parliamentary Party is the group of elected MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Congress is addressed as one of the most premier political parties of the nation that had witnessed every phase of the creation and development of India.

A list of Congress party presidents would include

Name of President	Year of Presidency	Name of President	Year of Presidency
Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	1885	S. Srinivasa Iyengar	1926
Dadabhai Naoroji	1886	Dr. M A Ansari	1927
Badruddin Tyabji	1887	Pandit Motilal Nehru	1928
George Yule	1888	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	1929-1930
Sir William Wedderburn	1889	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel	1931
Sir Pherozeshah Mehta	1890	Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	1932
P. Anandacharlu	1891	Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	1933
Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	1892	Nellie Sengupta	1933
Dadabhai Naoroji	1893	Dr. Rajendra Prasad	1934-1935
Alfred Webb	1894	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	1936
Surendranath Banerjea	1895	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	1936-1937
Rahimtulla M. Sayani	1896	Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose	1938
Sir C. Sankaran Nair	1897	Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose	1939
Ananda Mohan Bose	1898	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad	1940-1946
Romesh Chunder Dutt	1899	Acharya J.B. Kripalani	1947
Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar	1900	Dr Pattabhi Sitaraimayya	1948-1949
Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha	1901	Purushottam Das Tandon	1950
Surendranath Banerjea	1902	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	1951- 1952
Lalmohan Ghosh	1903	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	1953
Sir Henry Cotton	1904	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	1954
Gopal Krishna Gokhale	1905	U N Dhebar	1955
Dadabhai Naoroji	1906	U N Dhebar	1956
Rashbihari Ghosh	1907	U N Dhebar	1957
Rashbihari Ghosh	1908	U N Dhebar	1958
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	1909	U N Dhebar	1959
Sir William Wedderburn	1910	Indira Gandhi	1959
Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar	1911	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	1960
Rao Bahadur Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar	1912	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	1961
Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur	1913	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	1962-1963
Bhupendra Nath Bose	1914	K. Kamaraj	1964
Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha	1915	K. Kamaraj	1965
Ambica Charan Mazumdar	1916	K. Kamaraj	1966-1967
Annie Besant	1917	S. Nijalingappa	1968
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	1918	S. Nijalingappa	1969
Syed Hasan Imam	1918	Jagjivan Ram	1970-1971
Pandit Motilal Nehru	1919	Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma	1972-1974
Lala Lajpat Rai	1920	Dev Kant Baruah	1975-1977
C. Vijayaraghavachariar	1920	Indira Gandhi	1978-1983
Hakim Ajmal Khan	1921	Indira Gandhi	1983-1984
Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das	1922	Rajiv Gandhi	1985-1991
Maulana Mohammad Ali	1923	P. V. Narasimha Rao	1992-1996
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad	1923	Sitaram Kesri	1997-1998
Mahatma Gandhi	1924	Sonia Gandhi	1998-present (2009)
Sarojini Naidu	1925