After Mallikarjun Kharge officially took over charge as Congress President, all the members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), General Secretaries of All India Congress Committee and Incharges have tendered their resignations.
“All the CWC Members, AICC General Secretaries and Incharges have tendered their resignation to Congress President,” tweeted K C Venugopal.
It is learnt that Kharge has been given free hand to choose his new CWC Members, AICC General Secretaries and Incharges.
Kharge officially took charge as the party president at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in the national capital today.
Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry handed over the certificate of election to the top post.
“I hope other parties draw a lesson from the Congress and hold polls for the presidency by secret ballot,” said Mistry.
Former party president Sonia Gandhi, MP Rahul Gandhi and party’s General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra along with other senior leaders and MPs were present at the occasion.
Kharge met former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his home yesterday. This morning, he paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial, Rajghat. He also visited memorials of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, besides former deputy PM Jagjivan Ram.
Kharge, who was elected the first Congress chief outside the Nehru-Gandhi family in 24 years, has his task cut out as the party faces several electoral and organisational challenges.
A man of vast organisational and administrative experience, Kharge entered the electoral fray for the party’s top post after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot opted against contesting.
Kharge, 80, was seen as the “establishment’s candidate” against Shashi Tharoor and polled 7,897 votes against 1072 received by his rival.
A leader who has risen from the grassroots, Kharge belongs to the Dalit community and will the second leader from Karnataka to hold the top party post after S Nijalingappa became the Congress president in 1968.
In over five decades of experience in active politics, Kharge has been a union minister, Congress leader in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and has held several portfolios in Karnataka where he was MLA nine times.
With Kharge’s election as the new party chief, the Congress will seek to blunt the BJP’s attack on it over “family-oriented politics”. (ANI)
