Mallikarjun Kharge elected Congress president with massive majority

The 80-year–old Kharge is the first non-Gandhi in more than two decades to occupy the seat.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi with newly elected party president Mallikarjun Kharge, on October 19, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI

On October 19, the much-anticipated organisational elections of the Congress party came to a close with Congress veteran and Gandhi family loyalist Mallikarjun Kharge registering a decisive win with a massive majority of 7,897 votes (84.14 per cent) to Shashi Tharoor’s 1,072 votes (11.4 per cent). They were the only candidates in the fray. A total of 9,385 votes were polled, of which 416 were invalid votes. The 80-year–old Kharge takes over from Sonia Gandhi, who had been officiating as interim Congress president since 2019, the year Rahul Gandhi stepped down as president.

The electoral college comprised PCC delegates nominated by the party president. The results were announced by the central election authority, Madhusudan Mistry, at the AICC headquarters. Congress workers were seen celebrating the results as if the party had won some major election.

The process was not without its share of drama. First, even before the results were declared officially, Rahul Gandhi, who was addressing a press conference in Chagi, Andhra Pradesh, blurted that the next president would be Mallikarjun Kharge. When a reporter asked him about his role in the party, he said, “You would have to ask Khargeji,” letting the cat out of the bag.

While there is no doubt that Rahul Gandhi must have been receiving minute-by-minute briefs about the counting trends, it would have been appropriate if he had not revealed the name of the obvious victor, letting Madhusudan Mistry to do the needful as per protocol.

Second, even though Tharoor went over to Kharge’s residence and congratulated him for his victory, a day before the counting, he shot off a letter through his chief election agent Saifuddin Soz alleging irregularities in the poll process, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Although the letter was supposed to be a private affair, it was mysteriously leaked to the press.

At the AICC press conference, Mistry declined to entertain questions about Tharoor’s letter, averring that it was an internal affair of the party and that he would prefer not to discuss it in public.

The party has a new president, the first non-Gandhi to be elected in nearly 25 years. It remains to be seen how Mallikarjun Kharge revitalises the party, from the grass roots and up, and steers it towards credible electoral victories. The upcoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat might just be the proverbial litmus test for the new president and his team.