India’s Congress Party Gets a Non-Gandhi Chief After Two Decades
- Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance paved way for Kharge as president
- The development unlikely to impact political fate of party
Mallikarjun Kharge in Lucknow, on Oct. 11.
Photographer: Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times
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India’s Congress party elected its first leader from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family in over two decades, but the move is unlikely to help the already decimated party pose a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 general election.
Some 9,000 delegates voted in the election to pick veteran lawmaker Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, as party president. He defeated diplomat-turned-politician Shashi Tharoor, the head of the party’s election authority said Wednesday.