80-year-old Mallikarjun Kharge was elected as the new president of the Indian National Congress (INC) on Wednesday. He replaces Sonia Gandhi, the interim party chief and wife of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The election was held on October 17.
In the 137-year history of the grand old party, this is only the sixth time that a Congress chief has been chosen through an election contest. Usually, the president has been hand-picked by the party's central leadership or top leader.
Minutes after the result was announced, Shashi Tharoor in a statement conveyed his “warm congratulations” to Kharge, and stated that it is a privilege to be a part of the party.
Can Kharge Benefit Congress Party?
Talking to Sputnik, Rashid Kidwai, a political analyst and author, believes one has to wait and see how the party will perform in the state assembly polls to evaluate the results of the election of the Congresss president.
"In Indian politics, everything is connected with state assembly election (results). Now, we have to see how Congress will perform in the upcoming Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka states assembly elections,” he told Sputnik.
The new Congress president, who hails from the Dalit (formerly untouchable) community of Karnataka state, joined politics and Congress during his college days in 1969. Later, he went on to hold various portfolios in Congress governments, including being made India's railways minister and labor minister.
Meanwhile, Kidwai thinks Kharge's appointment as the Congress president will hardly have any impact among Dalit voters. "Nowadays, voters don’t vote only for the reason of the same caste."
“See, in Punjab state, Congress appointed a Dalit figure - Charanjit Singh Channi - as the state chief, but they still lost the election. It did not help them,” Kidwai says.
However, Kidwai notes that now it will be interesting to see what role Tharoor plays in the party.
“It would be interesting to see what role Tharoor gets now. Tharoor secured 11 percent of the vote, meaning a section wants a change in the party and the style of working. Will Congress appoint Tharoor to some new position in the party? Let’s see.”
Many senior members of Congress have already expressed their support for Kharge, who was also called "Congress' unofficial official candidate" or the "Gandhis' favorite" by some media outlets.
Tharoor, in his campaign, pitched himself as a candidate for bringing change.
Meanwhile, journalist and political commentator Sameer Chougaonkar opines: “First, Kharge has to take a fresh set of decisions to prove that he's not just a proxy for the Gandhi family and is actually in control of the party.”
“How Kharge will deal with dissenters, that would be interesting to watch,” Chougaonkar says.
In recent years, many senior Congress members have expressed their dissent within the party or left it.