Veteran Mallikarjun Kharge scored a one-sided victory over Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday to emerge as the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years. A staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, the 80-year-old leader trounced Tharoor by bagging nearly 84 per cent of votes in the party presidential election.
Kharge got 7,897 votes and Tharoor 1,072 votes, while 416 votes were declared invalid, Congress’ central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.
Congressmen across the country may celebrate Kharge’s victory, but Kharge himself would not have that luxury as he has to race against time to reverse the electoral fortunes of the 137-year-old party. Kharge will now have to intensify the party’s moribund campaign in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
In both States, the Congress campaign has not picked up in the absence of senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi.
Kharge, hailed by the Congress cadre as “Solillada Saradara”, a leader who has faced no defeat, rose from humble beginnings as a union leader to become the president of the Congress.
In his political career spanning over five decades, he deftly steered the Ministries he held and remained a steadfast Gandhi family loyalist notwithstanding the ebb and flow of politics and power.
Be it the Cauvery river water dispute or the kidnapping of iconic Kannada top star, late Rajkumar, he has handled such crisis situations as Home Minister of Karnataka, over two decades ago. Kharge’s public life began as a union leader in his home district of Gulbarga, now Kalaburagi, and he joined the Congress party in 1969 and became the president of the Gulbarga City Congress Committee.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he bucked the Narendra Modi wave that swept Karnataka, particularly the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, and won from Gulbarga with a margin of over 74,000 votes. For the nine-time MLA, Gurmitkal Assembly constituency was his home turf before he set his sights in 2009 on national politics.
While Sonia and Priyanka drove to the residence of Kharge to wish him, Rahul said the president was the “supreme authority” and he alone would decide on the way forward for the party. Addressing a press conference during his padyatra halt, Rahul said Kharge will now decided where to deploy him.
He has been a two-time MP from Gulbarga parliamentary segment. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the veteran leader was defeated by BJP’s Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes. He has served as Union Cabinet Minister for Labour and Employment, Railways, Social Justice and Empowerment in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government.
While his election was marked with great pomp and show throughout the day, Kharge also received congratulatory messages from Modi who wished him a “fruitful tenure”.
Besides the common nomenclature of reviving the party and winning couple of Assembly elections in near future, elements of major task cut out for Kharge is to keep the party’s flock together, settle internal squabbles like the one prevailing in Rajasthan, prevent another grouping like G-23 since the generational gap is to stay now, and above all taking independent decisions without annoying the Gandhis which now comprise of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
Around 177 MPs/MLAs have quit the party during elections, while 222 electoral candidates left the Congress for other parties in the last eight years over multiple issues including the ones like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Jyotiraditya Scindia who openly challenged the party’s first family. Hence, in the longer run, Kharge will have to find a way to stem these defections and ensure harmony between the old guard and the new. At least 460 leaders left Congress between 2014 and 2022.
Another challenge, as a very senior party leader confided, at the backdrop of loyalty pledge to the “high command” on the day of elections of the post, Kharge may be threatened as leaders not liking his ideas will rush to the Gandhis for resolution. Any principal change will surely need Rahul’s stamp in case Sonia finally decides to keep away due to poor health. The leader also mentioned immediate concern with Kharge will be solving the Rajasthan crisis where also elections are due and treading over a seasoned Ashok Gehlot and his bête noire established leader Sachin Pilot. Gehlot and Pilot met Kharge separately to congratulate him after the results.
“The party will neither want to lose the Assembly elections of Rajasthan and also will no more afford to loose another young leader in Pilot. His challenge will be to defuse the situation in the state before it turns into yet another crisis,” the leader remarked.
Addressing a Press conference after his victory, Kharge said, “no one is big or small, all have to work together as ‘karyakartas’ to strengthen Congress...We have to fight together against fascist forces who are attacking democracy and Constitution.”
All Congress workers feel that the country cannot be sacrificed for a “tanashah” and “we have to together fight “these ‘vinaashkari’ (destructive) forces”, he said. Kharge said Rahul had called him an hour ago and congratulated him and said that together “we all have to work towards strengthening the Congress organisation”.
The Dalit leader from Karnataka also appealed to all Congress workers and people of the country to join Rahul Gandhi in his Bharat Jodo Yatra which is a ‘jan andolan’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir against price rise, unemployment and against those who are creating hatred and division in society.
Kharge also lauded Sonia’s leadership, saying “her tenure will be remembered for a long time”. “I thank Sonia who made personal sacrifice as she steered the party for 23 years,” he said. In his congratulatory message, Rahul said Kharge represents a “democratic vision” of India. “The Congress president represents a democratic vision of India. His vast experience and ideological commitment will serve the party well as he takes on this historic responsibility,” Rahul said on Twitter.
Conceding his defeat, Tharoor congratulated Kharge and said the “democratic contest” has galvanised vibrancy at all levels and has prompted a healthy and constructive discussion on change, which will serve the party in good stead in the future. Tharoor also claimed that the Congress’ revival has begun.
Leaders from other political parties like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, left party leaders also congratulated Kharge and all hoped to work together for building the nation.