Mallikarjun Kharge paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi.
New Delhi:
Elections in two states within this year, a challenge for the two remaining Congress governments next year, and then a 2024 fight to prevent another Modi sweep – Mallikarjun Kharge will have more than a certificate given to him by the party as he Has formally become the Congress President today.
The 80-year-old Karnataka stalwart, who defeated 66-year-old Shashi Tharoor in a crucial election just last week, will formally replace Sonia Gandhi as she received her certificate of victory today. He is the first Congress president outside the Gandhi family in 24 years, but Rahul Gandhi remains the face of the party – which is why Mr Kharge faces the charge of “rubberstamp”.
Mr Kharge has billed “consensus and consultation” as his leadership strategy.
He met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence yesterday.
This morning, he paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial, Raj Ghat, and also visited the memorials of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, besides former deputy PM Jagjivan Ram, who was the first Dalit chief. Were. Congress; Mr Kharge is at number two.
Himalaya Work
In just two weeks, the Congress will hope that the voters of Himachal Pradesh will continue with their pendulum pattern to bring it back to power after five years of BJP rule. The hill state goes to polls on November 12.
Another election in the same time frame – exact dates awaited – is in Gujarat, PM Narendra Modi’s home state, where the Congress is running a low-key campaign as its hopes of ousting the BJP are not high.
The results of these two states will come in December.
hold on
In 2023, Mr Kharge awaits a big test. There will be nine assembly elections this year, including in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states with the Congress chief minister.
The year 2023 will also see the culmination of Rahul Gandhi’s five-month ‘Bharat Jodi Yatra’, the Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir walk, which the party hopes will help prevent another victory for the BJP in the 2024 general elections. .
Mr Kharge is known for not losing elections except in the 2019 Lok Sabha election as he entered the fray in 1969. After the 2019 defeat, Sonia Gandhi brought Mr Kharge to the Rajya Sabha and made him the Leader of the Opposition in February 2021. Apart from being a major player in Karnataka since the 1970s, he has served as the Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha
Same old, or new?
The last non-Gandhi Congress president was Sitaram Kesari, who was ousted in 1998 after two years into his five-year tenure when Sonia Gandhi finally admitted to being exposed.
Outside the immediate electoral landscape, Mr. Kharge also faces the challenge of restoring the party’s hegemony in the opposition sector as regional parties find it unfit to accommodate the lesser Congress.
Within the party, he may have to implement the reforms carried out at the Congress ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Udaipur, if he wants to see some new faces. All this comes in the face of the allegation that not much will change as he is a candidate of the Gandhi family.