After 24 years Congress gets a non-Gandhi president in Mallikarjun Kharge

Veteran Congress leader and Gandhi-family loyalist Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected as the new Congress President. He has become the Grand Old Party’s first non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.

In the party’s presidential polls, Kharge received 7,897 of the total of 9,385 votes, while his opponent, Shashi Tharoor, bagged 1,072 votes. Interestingly, 416 votes were found invalid.

Kharge will replace interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The last person from outside the Gandhi family who was elected to the top post was Sitaram Kesri, who held the position from 1996 to 1998.

Sonia Gandhi took over the reins in 1998 and served as party chief till 2017. Later, the baton was handed over to her son Rahul Gandhi, who formally resigned as president on July 3, 2019, taking responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the general elections.

The counting of votes commenced at 10 am at AICC headquarters in New Delhi. Secret ballot boxes had been brought from state units. As the results were declared by the party’s Central Election Authority in the afternoon, the party headquarters witnessed celebrations. Senior leaders and supporters had gathered in support of Mallikarjun Kharge.

Earlier, when the counting was underway, Congress leader Salman Soz, on behalf of Shashi Tharoor, wrote a letter to Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry alleging “extremely serious irregularities” in the conduct of the election process in Uttar Pradesh.

Soz wrote, “We suspect voter fraud in this election. There were delegates who were not present in the Lucknow area on the day of voting and their votes were cast.”

Responding to the allegations, Mistry told the media, “We have already prepared our report. Point by point, everything has been mentioned against their allegations.”

He said that six ballot boxes were received from Uttar Pradesh, and the numbers on two ballot boxes were missing. “We will send our response to them and it will not be in the public domain. It is the party’s internal matter and their response is completely unacceptable.”
Sources say the votes from Uttar Pradesh were also counted. The votes that were found invalid had various issues — a few had ticks for both the candidates. Many had written Rahul Gandhi on the voting slip provided to delegates.

After the results, Shashi Thaoor issued a statement and congratulated Kharge. Tharoor wrote, “Our new president is a party colleague and senior who brings ample leadership and experience to the table. Under his guidance, I am confident that we can all collectively take the party to new heights.”

Political experts believe the number of votes Tharoor has received signifies that there are many who want to see change in the party. “More than 1,000 people mustered the courage and cast their vote in favour of Tharoor. It means there are a number of people in the party who want to see a major change,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.

He said the party’s top leadership has supported Kharge and if Tharoor was elected the party top leadership would have been in an uncomfortable position. “Tharoor is very vocal and everything would have been in the media.”

Mallikarjun Kharge is close to all three Gandhis — Sonia, Rahul, and Priyanka. A politician with over 45 years’ experience, Kharge has risen up the ranks steadily over the course of his career.