{"id":108432,"date":"2022-10-19T15:28:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T12:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/?p=108432"},"modified":"2022-10-19T15:28:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T12:28:04","slug":"mallikarjun-kharge-elected-president-of-indias-congress-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/mallikarjun-kharge-elected-president-of-indias-congress-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Mallikarjun Kharge elected president of India\u2019s Congress party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mallikarjun Kharge defeats fellow Congress politician Shashi Tharoor to become the first Dalit to hold the position.<\/em><\/p>\n

India\u2019s opposition Congress party elected a former minister on Wednesday as its first president in 24 years not from the Gandhi dynasty, in an effort to reverse its electoral decline amid the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n

Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, was appointed by members over fellow politician Shashi Tharoor, a former under-secretary general for communications and public information at the United Nations, to replace Sonia Gandhi as president of the once-dominant party that won India\u2019s independence from British rule 75 years ago.<\/p>\n

He is also the first Dalit, people known as \u201cuntouchables\u201d under India\u2019s discriminatory caste system, to lead the party.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Congress governed India for decades after independence from Britain in 1947. The Gandhi family descended from the country\u2019s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.<\/p>\n

Nehru\u2019s daughter Indira Gandhi also went on to become prime minister. Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her after her assassination in 1984. Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a Tamil suicide bomber in 1991.<\/p>\n

After back-to-back defeat to the BJP in 2014 and 2019, Rahul Gandhi \u2013 Rajiv\u2019s son \u2013 resigned as party president and handed the presidency back to his Italian-born mother, Sonia Gandhi. She was first appointed to the role in 1998 before her son took over.<\/p>\n

The party was reduced to just 53 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament while the BJP won 303 seats in 2019 general elections.<\/p>\n

Kharge, a veteran politician, was born five years before independence and is widely believed to have the backing of both Sonia and Rahul.<\/p>\n

He now faces the mammoth challenge of winning the next national election, due in 2024, and three state elections next year.<\/p>\n

That includes in his home state of Karnataka, where he personally has won 11 of the dozen elections he has contested during his long career in the Congress party.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ample leadership\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tharoor congratulated Kharge and said that being Congress president was a \u201cgreat honour amd a huge responsibility\u201d, wishing Kharge \u201call success in the task\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur president is a party colleague and senior who brings ample leadership and experience to the table,\u201d he said in a statement posted on Twitter. \u201cUnder his guidance, I am confident that we can all collectively take the party to new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research think-tank, said the change at the top was a significant step for the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis symbolic change of the president is a very powerful moment for the Congress,\u201d Sircar told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts desire to change will have to reflect in organisational change on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahul Gandhi, speaking shortly before the party election result was announced, told reporters the new leader would call the shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Congress president is the supreme authority in the Congress party \u2026 Every member reports to them,\u201d he said, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mallikarjun Kharge defeats fellow Congress politician Shashi Tharoor to become the first Dalit to hold the position. India\u2019s opposition Congress party elected a former minister on Wednesday as its first president in 24 years not from the Gandhi dynasty, in an effort to reverse its electoral decline amid the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":108433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-india"],"yoast_head":"\nMallikarjun Kharge elected president of India\u2019s Congress party - TimesKuwait<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/mallikarjun-kharge-elected-president-of-indias-congress-party\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mallikarjun Kharge elected president of India\u2019s Congress party - TimesKuwait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mallikarjun Kharge defeats fellow Congress politician Shashi Tharoor to become the first Dalit to hold the position. 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