Mallikarjun Kharge is new Congress President, will be first non-Gandhi to hold post in over 2 decades

• Image Credit: Google

• Oct 19, 2022 | Dhupali Das

Vote counting began early today at the AICC headquarters...

Digital Desk: Mallikarjun Kharge has won the Congress president polls, the counting of which was held today in New Delhi. Kharge received 7897 votes, while Shashi Tharoor received only 1072.

On Twitter, Shashi Tharoor congratulated Kharge on becoming the party's leader.

"It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of @INCIndia & I wish @Kharge ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues and to carry the hopes& aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India," Tharoor twitted. 

Vote counting began early today at the AICC headquarters. All sealed ballot boxes from the 68 polling booths set up across the country were brought here by Tuesday evening and kept in a "strong room" at the party office.

Over 9,500 of the total 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who formed the electoral college to choose the party's chairman in a secret ballot, voted at PCC offices and at the AICC headquarters.

With Kharge, the party has got its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.

The election is historic as Kharge would succeed Sonia Gandhi, who has led the party for the longest period of time since 1998, barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when Rahul Gandhi took over.