New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected as the new national president of the party. Nearly 24 years later, a leader from outside the Gandhi family was elected president of the country’s oldest party.
Earlier, Sitaram Kesri was a non-Gandhi president. Voting for the post of Congress president was held on October 17. This time the contest was between senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor. Of which Mallikarjun Kharge managed to beat Shashi Tharoor.
Mallikarjun Kharge got 7,897 votes, while Shashi Tharoor got 1,072 votes.
Reacting to this, Tharoor said, “It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of INCIndia &I wish Kharge ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues,& to carry the hopes& aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India.”
He said, “We are indebted to outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi for remaining supportive and providing leadership to the party in the most critical situations. I thank Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi for their contribution in conducting free and fair elections for the post of Congress president.”
Around 9,900 Congress delegates were eligible to vote to elect the party chief. Polling was held at around 68 polling stations, including the Congress headquarters.
Around 9,500 delegates, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and several other senior leaders, voted on Monday to elect the new party president.
This is the sixth time in the 137-year history of the Congress party that the election for the post of president has been held.
According to party general secretary Jairam Ramesh, elections for the post of president have been held so far in 1939, 1950, 1977, 1997 and 2000. This time the election for the post of president has been held two decades.