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New Delhi, India
Mallikarjun Kharge was elected as the president of the Indian National Congress on Wednesday (October 19) as he defeated Shashi Tharoor in the party election, only the sixth in its history of 137 years.
A new era has begun for the current opposition party in India as Kharge became its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years. He will succeed Sonia Gandhi, who held the fort in recent years during several ups and downs.
Sonia emerged as an anchor during crucial moments, especially when the party's stature was slightly overshadowed by the dominance of India's ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in successive elections, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies.
Mallikarjun Kharge received 7,897 votes, and his rival Shashi Tharoor managed to get only 1,072. This huge-victory margin clearly shows what the party members actually wanted as their new game plan.
A total of 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates formed the electoral college to pick next party chief in a secret ballot. Over 9,500 cast their ballot at PCC offices and the AICC headquarters on Monday.
Who is Mallikarjun Kharge?
Kharge was born in Karnataka, a state in southwest India, on July 21 in 1942. After college, Kharge began his legal practice as a junior in Justice Shivaraj Patil's office.
Starting his political career as a student union leader in college, Kharge emerged as a stalwart in Indian politics. Throughout his career, he led many fights for the rights of labourers. He fought legal cases for labour unions early in his career, many of them pro bono.
He became the legal adviser to MSK Mills Employees' Union in 1969 and was also an influential labour union leader of Samyukta Majdoor Sangh.
Kharge was the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and was the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in 2008.
The 80-year-old was the leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha during 2014â2019 and the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha from February 16, 2021, to October 01, 2022. He had previously served as the minister of railways and minister of labour and employment in the Union government.
He won elections a record 10 consecutive times. He first contested the Karnataka State Assembly elections in 1972 and won from the Gurmitkal constituency an unprecedented nine consecutive times (1972, 1978, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2008, 2009).
G-23 leaders of Congress
The change is not sudden, senior leaders have been trying for it for quite some time. After facing a series of defeats in Lok Sabha and assembly elections of several states in the past few years, some veteran leaders of the party voiced concerns and highlighted several issues.
The G-23 leaders, as they came to be known, wrote a letter to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 and demanded active leadership and organisational rejig, which intensified with time.
Congress party's new non-Gandhi card for a new game
After conceding the election, Tharoor said he believed "the revival of the party begins today". To some extent, it appears to be true as voices kept emerging to give leadership to someone, not from the Gandhi family, in an attempt to end dynasty politics.
In a letter, Tharoor wrote: "I have always expressed the view that these elections, irrespective of the outcome, must ultimately strengthen the party. It gives me immense personal satisfaction that this has clearly been the case."
"Our democratic contest has galvanised vibrancy at all levels and has prompted a healthy and constructive discussion on change, which I believe will serve the party in good stead in the future," he added.
But how exactly it will pan out, only time will tell. Especially, Kharge's plan to win elections, keeping an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha battle.
Kharge will have to accelerate planning as BJP has already moved ahead with aggressive preparations for the general elections and come up with a blueprint to analyse its position in 144 Lok Sabha constituencies where its performance was not up to the mark in the last general election.
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