Mallikarjun Kharge elected as Congress's new chief: 10 things to know

Pic/PTI

The new president will take place of Sonia Gandhi who had been serving as interim president after Rahul Gandhi stepped down from the post following the party's debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress sources also said the elected president will take charge after Diwali in the presence of senior leaders in a programme at the Congress headquarters.

10 things to know about newly elected Congress President:

• Mallikarjun Kharge won the Congress presidential elections with 7897 votes. Kharge has won with 8 times more votes than Tharoor
• Shashi Tharoor got about 1072 votes
• Mallikarjun Kharge would be the first non-Gandhi president in 24 years
• He joined the party in 1969 and went on to become President of the Gulbarga City Congress Committee
• In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls the veteran leader was defeated by BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 vote
• He has served as Union Cabinet Minister for Labour and Employment, also Railways and Social Justice and Empowerment- in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government

Also read: BREAKING: Mallikarjun Kharge elected as Congress's new president

• Kharge was leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019 but could not become the leader of opposition, as the grand old party could not get the post as its numbers were less than the mandated 10 percent of the total number of seats in the Lower House.
• He was several times seen as a top contender to become the Chief Minister in Karnataka, but could never occupy the post
• He is a follower of Buddhism

(with inputs from PTI)