Mallikarjun Kharge to take charge as Congress President tomorrow

New Delhi: The Congress headquarters are preparing for tomorrow's ceremony at which Mallikarjun Kharge will formally take charge as the president. Sonia Gandhi will hand over the position to the senior leader from Karnataka.

The 80-year-old is the first non-Gandhi to lead the outfit in 24 years.

Security personnel and workers made last-minute arrangements on the AICC headquarters lawns. A tent was being put up and in the Congress president's office room. Chairman of the central election authority of the Congress Madhusudan Mistry will formally hand over the election certificate to Kharge.

Kharge defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest. He is taking charge at a time when the party is struggling against BJP coming to power in many former Congress-rules states.

The newly elected Congress President has served as the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, and later leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha. His first challenge as the leader of the party will be to bring it back to power in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Both states are seeing elections in a few weeks.

In 2023, Kharge will be leading Congress in nine assembly elections including in Karnataka. He served as MLA in his home state for nine terms. He started his career as chief of the Gulbarga city council and went on to serve as a state minister and a Lok Sabha MP from Gulbharge.