By IBNS Oct 26, 2022
New Delhi/IBNS: Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mallikarjun Kharge Wednesday took charge as the 98th Congress president succeeding the longest serving party chief Sonia Gandhi, in a formal materialising of the overhaul in the biggest opposition unit of the country.
Eighty-year-old Kharge, a loyalist of the Gandhi-Nehru family that has produced three Prime Ministers, is the first in 22 years to become the Congress president hailing from outside the clan.
Kharge was handed over the election certificate by Congress central election authority chairman, Madhusudan Mistry, in presence of Sonia Gandhi, her politician son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who are important members of the party.
Sonia took charge of the party for the last time in 2019 after Rahul stepped down from the Congress chiefs post following the partys Lok Sabha poll debacle.
Before heading to the event where he took charge, Kharge Wednesday visited Rajghat in the national capital Delhi to pay tribute to Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, former Prime Ministers, late Jawaharlal Nehru, late Indira Gandhi and late Rajiv Gandhi.
Mallikarjun Kharge paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, New Delhi | Image Credit: Twitter/Congress
Kharge won the elections over erudite Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor by a huge margin on Oct 19.
The president-elect got 7,897 as opposed to Tharoors mere 1,072, paving the way to become the second Dalit chief after Jagjivan Ram of the countrys oldest political party.
After winning the elections, Kharge, a former Union Minister who has equal proficiency in Hindi and English, gave a message for unity to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has led the Congress to the brink of elimination in the political map.
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Congress (@INCIndia) October 26, 2022
We all have to work like workers of the party, nobody is big or small in the party.
We have to unitedly fight against the fascist forces that are attacking the democratic institutions under the garb of communalism, Kharge, who has the record of winning assembly elections for nine consecutive times, said.