List of Congress Presidents (1885-1947)

Year	Location	President	Importance
1885	Bombay	W C Bonnerjee	1st session attended by 72 delegates
1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	National Congress and National Conference
1887	Madras	Syed Badruddin Tyabji	Appeal made to Muslims to join hands with other national leaders
1888	Allahabad	George Yule	First English president
1889	Bombay	Sir William Wedderburn	–
1890	Calcutta	Feroz Shah Mehta	–
1891	Nagpur	P. Ananda Charlu	–
1892	Allahabad	W C Bonnerjee	–
1893	Lahore	Dadabhai Naoroji	–
1894	Madras	Alfred Webb	–
1895	Poona	Surendranath Banerjee	–
1896	Calcutta	Rahimtullah M. Sayani	‘Vande Mataram’ sung for the first time.
1897	Amravati	C. Sankaran Nair	–
1898	Madras	Ananda Mohan Bose	–
1899	Lucknow	Romesh Chandra Dutt	–
1900	Lahore	N G Chandavarkar	–
1901	Calcutta	Dinshaw E. Wacha	–
1902	Ahmedabad	Surendranath Banerjee	–
1903	Madras	Lal Mohan Ghosh	–
1904	Bombay	Sir Henry Cotton	–
1905	Benares	Gopal Krishna Gokhale	Expressed resentment against the partition of Bengal
1906	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	The word ‘Swaraj’ was mentioned for the first time
1907	Surat	Rash Behari Ghosh	Party splits into extremists and moderates
1908	Madras	Rash Behari Ghosh
1909	Lahore	Madan Mohan Malaviya	Indian Councils Act, 1909
1910	Allahabad	Sir William Wedderburn	–
1911	Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Dhar	‘Jana Gana Mana’ sung for the first time
1912	Bankipore (Patna)	Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar	–
1913	Karachi	Syed Mohammed	–
1914	Madras	Bhupendra Nath Basu	–
1915	Bombay	Satyendra Prasanna Sinha	–
1916	Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar	Lucknow Pact – joint session with the Muslim League
1917	Calcutta	Annie Besant	First woman president of the INC
1918	Bombay And Delhi	Syed Hasan Imam (Bombay) And Madan Mohan Malaviya (Delhi)	Two sessions were held. First in Bombay in August/September Second in Delhi in December
1919	Amritsar	Motilal Nehru	Congress extended support to Khilafat Movement
1920	Calcutta	Lala Lajpat Rai	Mahatma Gandhi moved the Non cooperation resolution
1920	Nagpur	C Vijayaraghavachariar	– Reconstitution of Working committees of Congress on Linguistic basis Jinnah left the INC
1921	Ahmedabad	Hakim Ajmal Khan (acting President For C R Das)
1922	Gaya	C R Das	CR Das and other leaders broke away from INC Formation of Swaraj Party
1923	Kakinada	Maulana Mohammad Ali,	–
1924	Belgaum	M K Gandhi	– Only Session presided over by Mahatma Gandhi
1925	Kanpur	Sarojini Naidu	First Indian woman president
1926	Guwahati	S Srinivasa Iyengar	–
1927	Madras	M A Ansari	– Passed a resolution against boycott of Simon Commission Adoption of resolution on Purna Swaraj
1928	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru	All India Youth Congress formed
1929	Lahore	Jawaharlal Nehru	Resolution for ‘Poorna Swaraj.’ Civil Disobedience movement for complete independence to be launched, 26 January to be observed as ‘Independence Day’.
1930	No Session	–	–
1931	Karachi	Vallabhbhai Patel	Resolution on fundamental rights and national economic progress. Gandhi-Irwin pact endorsed. Gandhi nominated to represent INC in the 2^nd round table conference
1932	Delhi	Amrit Ranchhorddas Seth	–
1933	Calcutta	Malaviya Was Elected But Mrs Nellie Sengupta Presided	–
1934	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad	–
1937	Lucknow	Jawaharlal Nehru	–
1936	Faizpur	Jawaharlal Nehru	First rural session/first session to be held in a village
1938	Haripura	Subhas Chandra Bose	National planning committee set up under Nehru
1939	Tripuri	Subhas Chandra Bose	Bose was elected but had to resign since Gandhi supported Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Instead, Rajendra Prasad was appointed
1940	Ramgarh	Abul Kalam Azad	– Civil Disobedience movement to be launched at appropriate time and circumstances.
1941-45	–	–	No session because of arrest
1946	Meerut	Acharya Kripalani	Last session before independence
1948	Jaipur	Pattabhi Sitaramayya	First session after independence