In a year and a half, a new parliament will be elected in India. The once powerful Congress party is now without much influence. For the first time in 24 years, she now has a leader who does not come from the Gandhi family. But their members probably continue to pull the strings.
For the first time in almost a quarter of a century, India's Congress Party has had a non-Gandhi dynasty leader. 80-year-old former minister Mallikarjun Kharge was elected by members to succeed Sonia Gandhi at the helm of the once-powerful party. The Congress Party was instrumental in India's independence 75 years ago, but has slipped into political insignificance in recent years.
Kharge is a political veteran, having served as Minister of Railways and Minister of Labor. He is now to lead the Congress Party to victory in the next general election in 2024. However, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are expected to continue pulling the strings behind the scenes. Kharge won the election as party leader against 66-year-old Shashi Tharoor, who campaigned for "change".
The Congress Party ruled India for decades after independence in 1947. The Gandhi family is not related to independence hero Mahatma Gandhi but consists of descendants of the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was the father of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1984. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was killed in a suicide attack in 1991.
Incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the last two elections by a wide margin. After the last defeat in 2019, party leader Rahul Gandhi resigned in favor of his mother Sonia Gandhi, who first took over the post in 1998.
