India's main opposition Congress party begins poll for new chief

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – The process to elect a new chief of India's main opposition National Congress party started on Monday, with experts calling the election "historic."

Founded in 1885, the first modern nationalist and secular movement in South Asia, the Congress is the country's oldest party.

The election for the top party post began with around 9,000 delegates in different parts of the country casting their secret ballots.

The Congress party's last election was held in 2000 when Sonia Gandhi was elected the party chief. After she resigned in 2017 from the top post following her tenure coming to an end, her son Rahul Gandhi became the head of the party but he resigned in July 2019, owning responsibility for the second defeat in the 2019 polls.

Senior Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker from southern India and former top UN official, and veteran Mallikarjun Kharge are contesting the elections.

Tharoor on Monday morning tweeted that he spoke to Kharge "to wish him well and to reaffirm my respect for him and our shared devotion to the success" of the Indian National Congress party.

The vote counting will take place on Oct. 19.

It is for the first time that the party is set to have its non-Gandhi chief in over 20 years.

The powerful Gandhi family has produced four prime ministers and largely ruled the country since its independence in 1947.

The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has been targeting the Congress party for its dynastic politics.

Prominent Indian journalist and author Rasheed Kidwai earlier told Anadolu Agency the election is "historical" because none of the members of the powerful Gandhi family are in the fray at this time.

Over the last few years, the party has witnessed drubbing in a number of regional elections. A number of senior leaders resigned from the party, further worsening the party's crisis.

Also, a “Bharat Jodo Yatra” (Unite India March) by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is traveling from the south to the north on foot presently, has raised hopes for the party's revival as it has attracted attention, ahead of the general elections in 2024.