The Congress party may get its first non-Gandhi leader in 25 years

• Congress was soundly defeated in last two general elections by BJP.
• Congress was founded 137 years ago.
• A candidate for president will be chosen by about 9,000 party delegates.

As it seeks a fresh start ahead of the next election to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s largest opposition party, the Congress, is expected to nominate a new party president from outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for the first time in over 25 years.

Congress, which was founded 137 years ago during India’s fight for independence from Britain, was soundly defeated in the last two general elections by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party.

The weak leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the sickly party president Sonia Gandhi’s son, who temporarily assumed control in 2019, has been blamed for the departure of many prominent Congress politicians who have gone on to found their own parties or join the BJP.

For the majority of India’s history as an independent nation, the party has been in power and has been presided over by a Gandhi family member.

A candidate for president will be chosen by about 9,000 party delegates. Both Shashi Tharoor, a congressman from the southern state of Kerala and a former top UN official, and Gandhi family ally Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, could submit nominations this week, according to party sources.

Pranav Jha, secretary of the Congress’s Election Authority, stated that the election process had begun on September 22 and that voting would take place on October 17 if there were many candidates.

With the exception of 1937, 1950, 1997, and 2000, when elections were held because there was more than one candidate, the party has always unanimously chosen a president for a five-year term.

Until 2017, Sonia Gandhi, the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s widow, led the party without interruption.

Rahul Gandhi, who succeeded her but left office in 2019 after his party was trounced by Modi’s, has decided not to run in the party election.

He is currently in charge of the party’s five-month-long protest march against price increases and what it refers to as Modi’s polarizing policies.

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