Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge elected as new party chief

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Mallikarjun Kharge was elected as the new Congress President on October 19, 2022 after securing 7,897 votes out of 9,385 votes. He defeated former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor.

Important facts

• This is the first time in more than 20 years that the Congress president will be from a non-Gandhi family, with Sitaram Kesari being removed without any formalities in 1998, two years after his five-year tenure.

• Kharge replaces Sonia Gandhi who is the widow of late PM Rajiv Gandhi, who served as the party president for 19 years.

• His son Rahul Gandhi was elected unopposed in 2017 but stepped down two years later, taking responsibility for the party's defeat in the 2019 general elections.

• Since then, Mrs Gandhi has been leading the party as interim president.

About Mallikarjun Kharge

• He is a member of the Dalit community from the southern state of Karnataka.

• He was born in 1942 in Bidar district.

• He studied law in his early days and represented labour unions, took an active interest in politics from his student days and joined the Congress party in 1969.

• He emerged as a Dalit leader, but he has been very fair with all other communities as well.

• Kharge served as a minister in several state governments.

• In 2009, he moved to central politics in Delhi and was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Gulbarga constituency for the first time.

• In 2009, he moved to central politics in Delhi and was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Gulbarga constituency for the first time.

• In 2021, he was elected to the upper house.

• In the 2019 elections, the Congress won only 53 seats as the BJP swept the elections with 303 seats in the 545-member house.