Mallikarjun Kharge was the unsurprising winner in the presidential election of the Congress party. Once he takes over, he will be the first president of the party outside the Nehru-Gandhi family in 24 years.
Despite lodging a complaint about some of the processes during the election, the losing candidate Shashi Tharoor put out a statement congratulating Kharge. Of greater long-term significance to the Congress party is that Tharoor’s statement expressed the hope that the Nehru-Gandhi family will remain the “foundational pillar of the Congress”.
Effectively, it means that some things in the Congress are unlikely to change.
That said, the presidential election is an important development. Despite its existential crisis, the Congress has remained lethargic since its Lok Sabha defeat in 2019. It hasn’t had a full-time president.
Kharge, once he becomes president, has the tough job of rallying the troops. A party that has seen a constant stream of resignations in the recent past needs an organisational apparatus that functions. If Kharge is able to get that done, Congress will have a chance to do well in next year’s assembly election in Karnataka, a state where arguably it’s well placed to win.
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