Bhubaneswar: The newly-elected president of Indian National Congress (INC) Mallikarjun Kharge will take over from Sonia Gandhi, who has been serving as the interim chief since 2019, on October 26.
will take charge on October 26 at AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
According to sources, all the Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, Members of parliament (MPs), Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents, Congress legislature party (CLP) leaders, former Chief Ministers, former State presidents and other AICC office bearers have been invited to the programme.
Mallikarjun Kharge is the first non-Gandhi president of the Hand party in 24 years. A staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, he polled 7,897 votes against his rival Shashi Tharoor, who got could only manage the support of 1,072 delegates. The remaining votes were found to be invalid.
The electoral contest, the sixth in the history of Congress, was held between the veteran leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP on Monday and 96 per cent of the 9,915 eligible leaders had voted in the election.
Also read: Non-Gandhi At The Helm In Decades, Check Congress’ History Of Presidential Polls
In the first address after his victory, Kharge said, “We have to fight the fascist forces. We have to fight the forces that pretend to be democratic but attack democracy.”
