Waited a long time,’ says Congress’ longest-serving president Sonia Gandhi on her successor

New Delhi: “I have been waiting a long time for this,” Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said Monday on her way to voting in a new non-Gandhi party president in two decades.

Sonia was president from 1998 to 2017 till her son Rahul Gandhi took over the mantle in 2017. Sonia fronted the party again from 2019 after Rahul resigned taking responsibility for the party’s dismal performance in that year’s general elections.

At least 9,200 Congress delegates will elect either Shashi Tharoor or Mallikarjun Kharge Monday for the top post.

“Delegates from all states will vote at their respective polling stations with a ‘tick’ mark for the candidate they support. Arrangements have been made for a smooth polling,” said Central Election Authority Chairman of Congress Madhusudan Mistry.

The ballot boxes will reach Delhi on 18 October and counting of votes will be done the next day.

This is not the first time a non-Gandhi leader is contesting for the party presidency since Independence. Jitendra Prasad contested about 22 years ago and lost to Sonia Gandhi.

This time, no member of the Gandhi family is contesting for the post of president. This is the sixth time in its nearly 137-year-old history that polls are being held to elect the president. In the 2017 elections, Rahul Gandhi became the president unopposed.

Kharge, who is apparently the chosen candidate of the Gandhis, said that he would work to rebuild the party.

Thiruvananthapuram Member of Parliament Shahsi Tharoor said the “revival of the party had begun”. He was confident of winning though he admitted the odds were stacked against him. “I am confident. The fate of the Congress party is in the hands of its workers,” he added.

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