Rahul Gandhi elected Congress president, will take over reins from Sonia on Dec 16
Rahul gandhi addressing a rally in Viramgam on Monday. (Source: Twitter/INC) Rahul gandhi addressing a rally in Viramgam on Monday. (Source: Twitter/INC)
Rahul Gandhi has been elected the Congress president unopposed, the party’s central election authority announced on Monday.
He will take over the reins of the Congress from his mother, Sonia Gandhi, the party’s longest serving president, on December 16, heralding a generational shift barely 14 months before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rahul on his election as Congress president. “My best wishes for a fruitful tenure,” he tweeted.
There is still no word on the role to be played by Sonia, who has been at the helm for 19 years. “I think there is a huge role which she can always play. At the moment, we would like to just wish her a very long and healthy life,” Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
“Eighty-nine nomination papers proposing the name of Rahul Gandhi for Congress president were received…. Since the withdrawal date and time is over and as there is only one candidate, as per Article XVIII (d) of the Constitution of Indian National Congress, I hereby declare Shri Rahul Gandhi elected as President of the Indian National Congress,” Congress election authority chairman Mullapally Ramachandran said. He said it was a historic occasion for the Congress.
Rahul thanked his well-wishers on Twitter. “A heartfelt thank you to everyone for the tremendous support and good wishes you have showered on me,” he wrote. He also thanks Modi for his “good wishes”.
The Congress is planning a gala function to mark the change of guard.
The entire top leadership of the party, including its Chief Ministers, are expected to be in attendance on Saturday. Rahul faces the formidable challenge of not just reviving the electoral fortunes of the party and injecting a fresh life into a weak organisation but measuring up to the standards of members of the Nehru-Gandhi family who had held the post of Congress president in the past.
“As party president, Rahul Gandhi’s task is indeed daunting. While he has the advantage of an unquestioned endorsement of his leadership by the party and a huge reservoir of goodwill for Sonia Gandhi, he will be tested on the towering standards of leadership established by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi being the custodian of their legacy. He will thus need to demonstrate an unfaltering commitment to the values of these titans in whose shadow he must now walk,” former union minister Ashwani Kumar said.
Kumar said Rahul’s “foremost task will be to instil a sense of belonging at all levels in the party to ensure its unity and internal cohesiveness.”
“He is expected to be a just and fair leader in balancing the political aspirations of the old and the new guard,” he added.
“I have no doubt that he will measure up to the high expectations of the people as he did in Gujarat. And I so say irrespective of the electoral result in Gujarat. He took on the mighty Prime Minister in his own backyard and did not look back, clearly he has signaled that his would be a decisive leadership rooted in humility and bonding,” he said.
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