India’s Congress party on Wednesday appointed an octogenarian politician as its first president in 24 years not from the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.   

Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, was elected by members to replace Sonia Gandhi as president of the once-mighty party that played a major role in winning independence from the UK in 1947.

The Indian National Congress held onto power for decades, but is now a shadow of its former self. It has been in opposition at the federal level after having lost two general elections, in 2014 and 2019.

Kharge, who is seen as a Gandhi loyalist within the party, faced off against Shashi Tharoor, 66, a former under-secretary-general of the United Nations who campaigned for “change” in the party.

But Kharge overwhelmingly won the vote, receiving more than 80% of the ballots cast.

“By electing a family loyalist, Congress delegates have in fact chosen continuity over the changes that Shashi Tharoor campaigned for. This election will not alter the culture of deference towards the Gandhi family, who de facto remain the symbolic heads of Congress,” Giles Verniers, political scientist at Ashoka University, told DW.

Winds of change for Congress?

Due to his proximity to the Gandhi family, Kharge was widely seen as a frontrunner even before votes were cast on October 17.

It was the sixth time in the Congress party’s nearly 137-year-old history that an electoral contest decided who would take up the mantle of the party’s president.

Kharge will take over as Congress chief from Sonia Gandhi, who has been serving as interim president after her son, Rahul Gandhi, stepped down from the post following the party’s debacle in the 2019 general elections.

In his first remarks after winning the party presidential election, Kharge highlighted the sacrifice of Sonia Gandhi who led the party for years, and praised the initiative of Rahul Gandhi who was trying to create a people’s movement against bigotry through his ongoing cross-country “unity” march.

“I want to thank Sonia Gandhi on behalf of all party workers. Under her leadership, we formed our government at the center twice,” said Kharge.

Congress faces challenging times

Kharge’s election as Congress chief comes at a time when the party’s prospects look bleaker than ever.

It has been losing one state election after another since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power at the federal level in 2014. The Congress party is currently in power in just two of the nation’s 36 states and federally controlled territories.

It has also been beset by high-profile exits and defections, as well as intense intra-party rivalry among various political factions.

The challenge for Kharge now is to unite and reenergize the party, as well as come up with a vision that he can present to voters as a credible alternative to that offered by the Hindu nationalist BJP.

Some party insiders say we will know in a few months if the experiment of installing a non-Gandhi president after a gap of 24 years is working and whether Kharge is able to have his way to implement much-needed organizational reforms within the party. 

“We will know if he is his own man and not influenced by the sway of the Gandhi family in some time. That will be the true test as he knows the workings of the party well,” a senior Congress functionary, who asked not to be named, told DW.

Saving the party from political oblivion

The upcoming legislative elections in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat will be among the first challenges that Kharge will face.

In both states, apart from taking on the ruling BJP, the Congress also has to contend with the emergence of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as a serious player.

While Kharge has the stature and political experience to play a key role in reaching out to leaders of other opposition parties, he also has to come up with a blueprint for the 2024 general elections to ensure that his party is at the center of any anti-BJP alliance that might take shape.

“The election of a new party president is just one step among many to put the Congress party on a path of revival,” Verniers said:

“Gathering resources, building organization, strengthening state and local units, defining a political line that connects with voters, are not tasks that can be handled by a single individual, however experienced they may be,” Verniers added.

With Kharge at the wheel, senior leader Rahul Gandhi’s “Bharat Jodo Yatra” or “Unite India Rally,” is gathering momentum as he, too, aims to revive the party’s sagging electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 general elections.

The 3,570-kilometer-long (2,218 miles) tour on foot of Indian cities, towns and villages is aimed at countering the increasing religious divide, rising unemployment, escalating cost-of-living crisis and the weakening of democratic institutions.

After Kharge’s election, Rahul Gandhi pointed out that “the new president will decide what my role will be.”

Verniers said that the cross-country rally is an attempt by Gandhi to reclaim parts of a public sphere saturated by the BJP’s communication machine.

“It may generate goodwill towards Rahul Gandhi but it is doubtful however that it will translate into electoral gains in incoming state elections or in the next 2024 general election,” he underlined.

According to political scientist Zoya Hasan, reforms are needed to reverse the party’s decline into political oblivion.

“A revised ideological line combined with an organizational revamp can bring the party back in the reckoning,” she said.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru