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Complete Session-wise List (1885–1947)
| # | Year | Venue | President | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1885 | Bombay | W.C. Bonnerjee | First session; founded by A.O. Hume |
| 2 | 1886 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji | — |
| 3 | 1887 | Madras | Badruddin Tyabji | First Muslim president |
| 4 | 1888 | Allahabad | George Yule | First British/European president |
| 5 | 1889 | Bombay | William Wedderburn | — |
| 6 | 1890 | Calcutta | Pherozeshah Mehta | — |
| 7 | 1891 | Nagpur | P. Anandacharlu | — |
| 8 | 1892 | Allahabad | W.C. Bonnerjee (2nd time) | — |
| 9 | 1893 | Lahore | Dadabhai Naoroji (2nd time) | — |
| 10 | 1894 | Madras | Alfred Webb | — |
| 11 | 1895 | Poona | Surendranath Banerjee | — |
| 12 | 1896 | Calcutta | Rahimtullah M. Sayani | Bande Mataram sung for the first time (by Rabindranath Tagore) |
| 13 | 1897 | Amraoti | C. Sankaran Nair | — |
| 14 | 1898 | Madras | Anandamohan Bose | — |
| 15 | 1899 | Lucknow | Romesh Chunder Dutt | — |
| 16 | 1900 | Lahore | N.G. Chandavarkar | — |
| 17 | 1901 | Calcutta | Dinshaw E. Wacha | — |
| 18 | 1902 | Ahmedabad | Surendranath Banerjee (2nd time) | — |
| 19 | 1903 | Madras | Lal Mohan Ghosh | — |
| 20 | 1904 | Bombay | Sir Henry Cotton | — |
| 21 | 1905 | Banaras | Gopal Krishna Gokhale | Held amid Partition of Bengal protests |
| 22 | 1906 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji (3rd time) | Demand for "Swaraj" articulated for the first time |
| 23 | 1907 | Surat | Rash Behari Ghosh | The Surat Split — Moderates vs Extremists |
| 24 | 1908 | Madras | Rash Behari Ghosh (2nd time) | Constitution of Congress framed |
| 25 | 1909 | Lahore | Madan Mohan Malaviya | — |
| 26 | 1910 | Allahabad | William Wedderburn (2nd time) | — |
| 27 | 1911 | Calcutta | Bishan Narayan Dhar | — |
| 28 | 1912 | Bankipore (Patna) | R.N. Mudholkar | — |
| 29 | 1913 | Karachi | Nawab Syed Muhammad | — |
| 30 | 1914 | Madras | Bhupendra Nath Bose | — |
| 31 | 1915 | Bombay | S.P. Sinha | — |
| 32 | 1916 | Lucknow | Ambica Charan Mazumdar | Lucknow Pact (Congress-League unity); reunion of Moderates/Extremists |
| 33 | 1917 | Calcutta | Annie Besant | First woman president |
| 34 | 1918 (Special) | Bombay | Syed Hasan Imam | Special session on Montagu-Chelmsford proposals |
| 34b | 1918 | Delhi | Madan Mohan Malaviya (2nd time) | — |
| 35 | 1919 | Amritsar | Motilal Nehru | Held soon after Jallianwala Bagh Massacre |
| 36 | 1920 (Special) | Calcutta | Lala Lajpat Rai | Special session adopted Non-Cooperation |
| 36b | 1920 | Nagpur | C. Vijayaraghavachariar | Non-Cooperation Movement formally ratified; Congress constitution reorganised on linguistic lines |
| 37 | 1921 | Ahmedabad | Hakim Ajmal Khan | (C.R. Das, elected president, was in jail) |
| 38 | 1922 | Gaya | C.R. Das | Split over council entry — leads to Swaraj Party formation (1923) |
| 39 | 1923 (Special) | Delhi | Abul Kalam Azad | Youngest-ever Congress president (age 35) |
| 39b | 1923 | Kakinada (Cocanada) | Maulana Mohammad Ali | — |
| 40 | 1924 | Belgaum | Mahatma Gandhi | Only session Gandhi ever presided over |
| 41 | 1925 | Kanpur | Sarojini Naidu | First Indian woman president |
| 42 | 1926 | Guwahati | S. Srinivasa Iyengar | — |
| 43 | 1927 | Madras | M.A. Ansari | Resolution on Purna Swaraj first mooted (by Nehru/Bose) |
| 44 | 1928 | Calcutta | Motilal Nehru (2nd time) | Nehru Report presented |
| 45 | 1929 | Lahore | Jawaharlal Nehru | Purna Swaraj Resolution; 26 Jan 1930 observed as Independence Day |
| 46 | 1931 | Karachi | Vallabhbhai Patel | Resolutions on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Policy |
| 47 | 1932 | Delhi (session banned/suppressed) | — | Civil Disobedience ongoing; leadership imprisoned |
| 48 | 1933 | Calcutta | Mrs. Nellie Sengupta | Session held despite ban; Nellie Sengupta presided |
| 49 | 1934 | Bombay | Rajendra Prasad | Civil Disobedience formally withdrawn |
| 50 | 1936 | Lucknow | Jawaharlal Nehru (2nd time) | — |
| 51 | 1937 | Faizpur | Jawaharlal Nehru (3rd time) | First session held in a rural area |
| 52 | 1938 | Haripura | Subhas Chandra Bose | — |
| 53 | 1939 | Tripuri | Subhas Chandra Bose (2nd time) | Bose re-elected defeating Gandhi's nominee (Pattabhi Sitaramayya); later resigned amid conflict with Gandhi, formed the Forward Bloc |
| 54 | 1940 | Ramgarh | Abul Kalam Azad | — |
| — | 1946 | Meerut | Acharya J.B. Kripalani | Last pre-independence annual session |
Note: Between 1940 and 1946, regular annual sessions were disrupted by World War II and the mass arrests following the Quit India Movement (1942); Abul Kalam Azad continued as Congress president through this extended period (1940–1946), the longest continuous tenure of any Congress president.
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