Who was the first president of the Indian National Congress?

First President of Indian National Congress INC

Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee

W.C. Bonnerjee was the first President of the Indian National Congress. The first session of the Indian National Congress was held from 28–31 December 1885 and was attended by 72 delegates.

The Congress was founded in December 1885 in Bombay. Its founding members included Allan Octavian Hume, who had chalked out the idea in an open letter to graduates of the University of Calcutta in 1883, as well as William Wedderburn, Pherozeshah Mehta, and others. Hume took the initiative, and in March 1885 the first notice convening the first Indian National Union to meet in Poona the following December was issued.

Its objective was to obtain a greater share in government for educated Indians and to create a platform for civic and political dialogue between educated Indians and the British Raj.

The Congress met each December. The first meeting was scheduled to be held in Poona, but due to a cholera outbreak there it was shifted to Bombay. Hume organised the first meeting in Bombay with the approval of the Viceroy Lord Dufferin. Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the first president of the Congress; the first session was held from 28–31 December 1885 and was attended by 72 delegates. Representing each province of India, the Party's delegates comprised 54 Hindus and 2 Muslims; the rest were of Parsi and Jain backgrounds.