‘Till last minute…’: Ashok Gehlot on Rahul Gandhi, then wishes Mallikarjun Kharge

Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge will formally take over as the party president on Wednesday.

Updated on: Oct 26, 2022, 10:20:36 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Aniruddha Dhar, New Delhi

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Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge will formally take over as the party president on Wednesday. Kharge visited Rajghat and paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi ahead of taking the charge.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot. (PTI Photo)

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who had backed Kharge as the Congress president post, said on Wednesday that till the last minute, efforts were made to make Rahul Gandhi the party president as only he can challenge Prime Minister Modi and the government led by him.

“Till the last minute, efforts were made to make Rahul Gandhi the party president as only he can challenge Modi and the government. Today is a new beginning. We congratulate Mallikarjun Kharge Ji and will work to strengthen the party,” news agency ANI quotes Gehlot as saying.

During the Congress presidential election, Gehlot had said that Kharge has the experience to strengthen the party and would emerge as a clear winner in the poll, while his rival in the race Shashi Tharoor belonged to the “elite class”.

Earlier in the day, Kharge, accompanied by Congress leaders Ajay Maken, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Anil Chaudhary and Youth Congress chief Srinivas BV, among others, paid floral tributes at the memorial of the Father of the Nation.

"The newly elected Congress president, Kharge ji, reached Rajghat before taking oath today and paid homage to revered Bapu. The path shown by Mahatma Gandhi is guiding not only the Congress, but the country and the world even today," the Congress said in a tweet in Hindi.

Kharge will be formally handed over the certificate of election by the Congress' central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry and the party reins by outgoing chief Sonia Gandhi at a function at the AICC headquarters here.

Kharge defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the top post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race.

(With inputs from PTI)

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