Jammu, Oct 20: Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge an 80 year old staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka has become first non Gandhi president of 137 year old Congress party in last over more than24 years.
He defeated Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor in the October 17 presidential election which saw over 9500 delegates across the country.
The current elections were historic as the new president MM Kharge will replace Sonia Gandhi who is the longest serving party president since 1998 barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when her son Rahul Gandhi had taken over as the Congress party president
It has been Nehru- Gandhi family at the helms of the Congress party for about 40 years since the Independence of the country and only five family members of the duo family toon on mantle of Congress president which include Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi,Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress party however, has seen many non-Gandhi presidents in the past and Sita Ram Kesri was the last one after Sonia Gandhi succeeded him in 1998.since then she headed the Congress party but due to internal pressure for a little time of two years Rahul Gandhi was elevated to head the party but his non interest in party affairs invited a large scale criticism from certain quarters as a result of which he felt disillusioned and resigned from the top post of the party paving way again to her mother Sonia Gandhi to remain on the post. In spite his mother Sonia Gandhi remained on the coveted post for the longest period than anyone of her family without any hurdles from any sides.
It was again in 2021 Rahul was urged to lead the Congress party as its head but for reasons unknown he outrightly refused to do so.In this way due to pressures from several quarters including outside and inside the party delegates an election beguile has rang and search for appropriate candidate began.In the fray senior most Congress stalwart MM Kharge and highly acclaimed Shashi Tharoor were infront of each other and party delegates imposed faith in Kharge to new non-Gandhi elected president to lead the party where as Gandhi family members will be termed hitherto as former presidents of Congress party.