Mallikarjun Kharge with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi on the occasion chiefship takeover ceremony.
New Delhi:
Elections in two states inside this yr, challenges to the 2 remaining Congress governments subsequent yr, after which the 2024 struggle to cease one other Modi sweep — Mallikarjun Kharge received greater than only a certificates from the occasion as he formally turned Congress president right this moment. “In the present day I keep in mind all of the previous occasion chiefs as I search each occasion employee’s assist, in full power, to tackle the challenges earlier than the Congress,” he mentioned after taking on.
The 80-year-old Karnataka veteran, who defeated Shashi Tharoor, 66, in a slightly eventful election solely final week, changed Sonia Gandhi as he received the victory certificates from Madhusudan Mistry, the occasion ballot panel chief. “It was on January 15, 1998, in Bengaluru when Sonia Gandhi at her first public rally mentioned she’s taking her first political classes from Karnataka. Her politics has been that of sacrifice, above self-interest and quest for energy alone,” he mentioned.
Mallikarjun Kharge is the primary Congress chief from outdoors the Gandhi household in 24 years, however Rahul Gandhi, who was on the operate, stays the face of the occasion nonetheless — a purpose why Mr Kharge faces the “rubberstamp” cost.
Mr Kharge has billed “consensus and session” as his management technique. He met with former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his residence yesterday. This morning, he paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial, Rajghat.
He additionally visited memorials of former PMs Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, apart from former deputy PM Jagjivan Ram, who was the primary Dalit chief of the Congress; Mr Kharge is the second.
Himalayan job
In simply over two weeks, the Congress will hope the voters of Himachal Pradesh proceed with their pendulum sample to deliver it again to energy after 5 years of BJP rule. The hill state votes on November 12.
One other election in the identical timeframe — actual dates awaited — is in Gujarat, PM Narendra Modi’s residence state, the place the Congress has been working an admittedly lowkey marketing campaign as its hopes of unseating the BJP aren’t visibly excessive.
Results of these two states will likely be out in December.
Holding on
In 2023, a much bigger take a look at awaits Mr Kharge. The yr will see 9 meeting elections, together with in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the one two states the place the Congress has chief ministers.
The yr 2023 may also see the end result of Rahul Gandhi’s five-month ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir march that the occasion hopes will assist it cease the BJP from one other sweep, within the 2024 normal elections.
Mr Kharge is understood for not dropping an election barring the 2019 Lok Sabha contest since he entered the fray in 1969. After the 2019 loss, Sonia Gandhi introduced Mr Kharge to the Rajya Sabha and in February 2021 made him the chief of the opposition. He has served as chief of Congress in Lok Sabha, apart from having been a key participant in Karnataka for the reason that Nineteen Seventies
Usual, or new?
The final non-Gandhi Congress president was Sitaram Kesri, who was eliminated in 1998 simply after two years into his five-year time period when Sonia Gandhi lastly acceded to coming to the fore.
Outdoors of the fast election scene, Mr Kharge additionally faces the problem of restoring the occasion’s primacy within the opposition area as regional events discover it unworthy to concede area to a diminished Congress.
Throughout the occasion, he might must implement reforms pledged on the Congress ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Udaipur if he needs to be seen because the face of one thing new. All this comes within the face of insinuations that not a lot would change as he’s a nominee of the Gandhis.
