Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor’s team alleged “extremely serious irregularities” in the election process.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and a close Gandhi family aide, Mallikarjun Kharge is all set to become the new Congress president. Kharge managed to bag 7,897 votes while his contender Shashi Tharoor got only 1,072 votes.
This is the first time since over 20 years that the Congress party will see an elected leader as the president of the party. It is also the first in the last 24 years that the party will have a non-Gandhi president.
Interestingly, moments before the results were declared, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi declared Kharge as the winner at a press conference in Karnataka. Asked by the media whether he would report to the new party chief, Gandhi said, “The new president will decide my role in the party. Ask Kharge ji and Sonia ji.”
Meanwhile, Tharoor’s team alleged “extremely serious irregularities” in the election process.
The counting of votes had begun at the Congress headquarters at 10 am and it ended around 1 pm.
It is important to note that the election to choose the Congress president came after Rahul Gandhi quit the post following two major poll debacles in 2014 and 2019. While the party leaders wanted him to continue, Gandhi stood his ground and denied to take up the post. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi was made the working president of the party.
For long, there was a clamour within the party to appoint a non-Gandhi president and bring about changes in the ranks and file. In fact, Rahul Gandhi himself had said that the next president would be a non-Gandhi.
