India's Congress party elects first non-Gandhi head in 24 years

NEW DELHI: India's Congress party appointed Wednesday an octogenarian ex-minister as its first president in 24 years not from the Gandhi dynasty, in an effort to reverse its apparent steady decline into political oblivion.

Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, was elected by members to replace Sonia Gandhi as president of the once-mighty party that helped win India's independence 75 years ago.

Congress governed India for decades after independence from Britain in 1947, but is now a shadow of its former self, discredited and crushed under the electoral juggernaut of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Gandhi family is not related to India's independence icon Mahatma Gandhi, but descended from the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Nehru was the father of prime minister Indira Gandhi, assassinated in 1984. She was the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, killed by a suicide bomber in 1991.

The BJP thrashed Congress at the last two elections, with Modi deriding party president Rahul Gandhi -- son of Rajiv and Sonia -- as an out-of-touch princeling and playboy.

After the latest defeat in 2019, Rahul Gandhi resigned as party president and handed the reins back to his Italian-born mother Sonia, now 75, who was first appointed to the role in 1998.

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

Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday that Kharge is now the supreme authority in the party and that he "will decide my role in the party".

Despite stepping back, Sonia and Rahul are expected to continue pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Kharge now faces the mammoth challenge of winning the next national election, due in 2024, and three state elections next year.

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.

'What matters is winning'

Kharge faced off against Shashi Tharoor, 66, who campaigned for "change" in the leadership.

Tharoor conceded defeat on Twitter and said that being Congress president was a "great honour & a huge responsibility", wishing Kharge "all success in the task".

The party was reduced to just 53 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament after the last national election swept by the BJP with 303 seats.

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A decision to elect a non-Gandhi president showed that Congress was "weary of criticism from BJP and Modi", Rasheed Kidwai, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and close watcher of the party for years, told AFP.

He added that there was a "fair chance" that Kharge may turn around the party's fortunes.

"He may be 80 but is in good health and a workaholic. He meets party leaders about state and regional issues. He can provide a healing touch to the party ranks," Kidwai said.

"But ultimately, in an electoral democracy what matters is winning elections."