Who among the following never presided a Session of Indian National Congress?

The answer is B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Tilak never became President of the Indian National Congress. He was a leading voice of the Extremist wing and was sidelined after the Surat split of 1907, and the Congress presidency never came to him.

• A) Lala Lajpat Rai presided over the special Calcutta session of September 1920, which endorsed the Non-Cooperation programme.
• C) Gopal Krishna Gokhale presided over the Benares session of 1905, when the Moderates were at the height of their influence.
• D) Subhash Chandra Bose presided over the Haripura session of 1938. He was re-elected in 1939 but resigned before the Tripuri session.

The core concept here is the Congress leadership pattern in the pre-1947 period: Moderates, Extremists and Gandhian leaders alternated at the top, and the presidency is a useful lens for tracing ideological shifts. For Mains, it links to the debate on the Moderate-Extremist divide and the Surat split.

Trap: Aspirants often pick Lajpat Rai or Bose because they are remembered for a session's resolution rather than its presidency. Check the presidency list, not the movement.