Congress has a new President after 24 year’s from outside the Gandhi’s family. Mallikarjuna Kharge was elected as Congress President through voting. It is reported that Kharge got 7897 votes out of 9497 votes polled. Shashi Tharoor got only 1072 votes. Other 416 votes were invalid. Congress has not officially announced the result.
It is interesting to note that even when it is said that someone from outside the Gandhi’s family ascended to the post of President, he is replaced by a confidant of the same family. When Ashok Gehlot was not ready to give up the post of Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Kharge entered the scene instead. Kharge was aided by official snobbery even as he claimed the election was transparent.
Kharge, who contested with official guise backed by senior leaders, was almost certain to win, but Shashi Tharoor’s presence and campaigning kept a coup potential. Tharoor’s team alleged that there were irregularities in the election while the counting of votes was in progress. Tharoor filed a complaint alleging irregularities in the election process in Uttar Pradesh.
The new Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is a senior leader from Karnataka. He resigned from the position of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and contested the Congress President election.
Kharge faced 12 elections to the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha and lost only once. That was in 2019. From his first contest in 1972 to 2008, he was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for nine consecutive terms. The consecutive victory was from Gurmitkal constituency which is a reserved seat. Once won from Chitapur. Elected to Lok Sabha from Gulbarga in 2009 and 2014.
In 2019, however, he lost to Umesh Jadhav, who worked as his own booth agent. Then it reached the Rajya Sabha. Kharge, who has served as a Union Minister and a Minister in Karnataka, was the Leader of the Lok Sabha Party of the Congress, the Leader of the Party in the Rajya Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition. Kharge, 80, is a confidant of the Gandhi family.