Mallikarjun Kharge is the new Congress President and will be first non-Gandhi to hold post in over 2 decades. He will replace interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who has been at the post ever since Rahul Gandhi stepped down after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Congress will get a non-Gandhi chief after more than 24 years as Mallikarjun Kharge wins the party's presidential election. Following a clear victory over Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday, Mallikarjun Kharge was elected the next president of the Congress.
Mallikarjun Kharge won the Congress presidential elections with 7897 votes; meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor bagged nearly 1,000 votes. At the AICC headquarters in New Delhi, the vote counting to choose between the two senior leaders had started at 10 am.
His opponent Shashi Tharoor conceded defeat and wished luck to Kharge. Check out his post here:
It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of &I wish ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues,& to carry the hopes& aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India. pic.twitter.com/NistXfQGN1
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor)Also Read | Mallikarjun Kharge is new Congress President; Know his net worth, education, other details
A senior Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge is a long-time loyalist of the Gandhi family. He joined the Congress party in 1969. Kharge represented labor unions in his early career.
Even before the results were announced, Rahul Gandhi had declared Kharge as the winner at a press conference in Karnataka. Rahul Gandhi said when asked if he would report to the next leader: "What my job will be decided by the incoming president. Ask Kharge Ji."
Kharge will succeed Sonia Gandhi, who has served as the interim leader of the Congress since Rahul Gandhi resigned following the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While Tharoor positioned himself as the candidate of change, party veteran Kharge was regarded the "unofficial candidate" of the Gandhi family and had the support of several senior officials.
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