India’s Congress party picks non-Gandhi president for first time in over 20 years
Former railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected Congress president, becoming the first leader outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to hold the post in over two decades, as the party seeks to revive its political fortunes.
As widely anticipated, the 80-year-old veteran politician defeated former United Nations diplomat-turned-politician Shashi Tharoor, winning 90 per cent of the 9,385 votes.
Still, the Nehru-Gandhi family’s hold on the party is not expected to weaken. The family has led the party for the most part since India’s independence from the British in 1947, and has given the country three prime ministers – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Kharge succeeds Sonia Gandhi, who held the post for 19 years and is Gandhi’s widow. Her son Rahul took over the post for a period, but stepped away to take responsibility for the party’s 2019 general election defeat.
Kharge is a staunch family loyalist and was widely seen as the unofficial choice of the family.
“I believe the revival of our party has truly begun today,” Tharoor said in a statement amid allegations of electoral irregularities from his camp.
Congress has seen its political fortunes plunge following the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Agencies