Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge formally took over as Congress president on Wednesday after he was handed over the certificate of election to the top post at a function at the AICC headquarters here.
Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years, had defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the president's post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race.
Kharge was handed over the certificate of election as the Congress president by the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry.
Mistry said he hopes other parties will draw a lesson from the Congress and hold polls for party presidency by secret ballot.
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Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were also present at the event which was attended by several top party leaders.
Ahead of his taking over, Kharge visited Rajghat and paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi. He also visited the memorials of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and former deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, and paid tributes to the leaders
Kharge, accompanied by Congress leaders Ajay Maken, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Anil Chaudhary and Youth Congress chief Srinivas BV, among others, paid floral tributes at the memorial of the Father of the Nation.
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"The newly elected Congress president, Kharge ji, reached Rajghat before taking oath today and paid homage to revered Bapu. The path shown by Mahatma Gandhi is guiding not only the Congress, but the country and the world even today," the Congress said in a tweet in Hindi.
Hectic preparations are underway at the Congress headquarters on Tuesday for the ceremony where outgoing president Sonia Gandhi will hand over the reins to Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years.
Kharge defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the top post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race.
Ahead of his taking over, Kharge called on former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his residence and spent some time with him.
The challenges awaiting Kharge
Kharge, 80, takes charge of the party at a time when it faces a tough challenge from a formidable BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which has ousted the Congress from many states.
For Kharge, who has served as a leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, the current assignment comes at a time when the party is at a historic low, electorally.
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With the Congress now remaining in power in only two states -- Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- on its own and as a junior partner in Jharkhand, Kharge's first challenge is to bring the party to power in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, which go to polls in the next few weeks.
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November 12. The dates for the Gujarat polls are yet to be announced.
In 2023, Kharge will face the onerous task of leading the Congress in nine assembly elections, including in his home state of Karnataka where he was an MLA for nine terms.
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Kharge's election also comes at a time the party is reeling under internal rumblings and high-profile exits after a series of electoral debacles and has been reduced to a shadow of its former formidable self.
Kharge also faces the challenge of restoring the Congress' primacy in the opposition space, implementing radical reforms the party pledged at the mid-May 'Chintan Shivir' in Udaipur and maintaining his independence in the face of insinuations that he is a candidate of the Gandhis and would seek their approval in all decisions.
Kharge's journey so far
Beginning his career as chief of the Gulbarga city council, Kharge has also served as a state minister and a Lok Sabha MP from Gulbarga (2009 and 2014).
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The old warhorse is well-known for not losing an election barring the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Gulbarga.
It was after that loss that Sonia Gandhi brought Kharge to Rajya Sabha and in February 2021 made him the leader of the opposition.
The last non-Gandhi Congress president was Sitaram Kesri, who was unceremoniously removed in 1998 just after two years into his five-year term.
A leader with more than 50 years of experience in politics, Kharge is also the second All India Congress Committee (AICC) president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa and also the second Dalit leader after Jagjivan Ram to hold the post.
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(With PTI Inputs)
