Kharge Becomes Congress Chief: Was It Pre-Decided?

Although Kharge was elected as the first non-Gandhi president of the Congress party in decades, the opposition was quick enough to point out his loyalty towards the Gandhis as being a drawback of his leadership, terming him as a rubber-stamp or a puppet president.

Soon after the results were out, the ruling BJP alleged rigging in the congress presidential polls, this was further proved when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accidentally revealed Mallikarjun Kharge as the new president of the Congress party before the results of the party’s presidential elections were declared.

While the ballots were still being counted in Delhi on Wednesday, Gandhi, who is in charge of the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, inadvertently revealed the results while interacting with media in Andhra Pradesh.

“I can’t comment on Congress president’s role, that’s for Kharge ji to comment on. The president will decide my role in the party,” Gandhi was heard saying.

#WATCH| "I can't comment on Congress President's role, that's for Mr Kharge (party's Presidential candidate) to comment on. The President will decide what my role is…", says Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, in Andhra Pradesh

Counting of votes to decide the Congress President underway pic.twitter.com/eRoRBY7QfX

— ANI (@ANI) October 19, 2022

Mallikarjun Kharge won the election for Congress president by a landslide in less than an hour defeating Shashi Tharoor.

On October 17, Congress delegates cast 9,385 votes, and Kharge received the majority of those votes, receiving 7,897 to Tharoor’s 1,072 votes. Tharoor eventually gave up the fight with grace.

The election is historic because the winner will succeed Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving party chief, who has been in office since 1998, with the exception of the two years between 2017 and 2019 when Rahul Gandhi presided.

Meanwhile, charges of anomalies plagued the Congress presidential election process. However, according to Madhusudan Mistry, head of the Congress central poll authority, the election was “free, fair, and transparent.”