Mallikarjun Kharge's pic missing from party HQ month after being elected as Congress Prez

For the first time in 24 years, Congress got a non-Gandhi president when Mallikarjun Kharge was elected after defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest. Notably, a month after the change of top leadership at the AICC, the dominance of the Gandhi family is apparent. 

This comes in connection with new party president Kharge's missing picture from the official hoarding board of the Congress headquarters. Even after a month, it is yet to find a place in the rooms of the party's key office-bearers. Although it was not the same when Sonia Gandhi took over as President and when Rahul Gandhi became general secretary and later party chief.

Mallikarjun Kharge's photos yet to find place at 24 Akbar Road

After Rahul Gandhi's resignation as party chief in 2019, the process of meetings came to a standstill. When Kharge took over the position, he started holding meetings with party leaders and workers by giving them appointments at his home and even meeting them at Congress headquarters without any fixed appointment. He also got engaged in the poll campaigns for Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections. Kharge completely took over in October 2022 but the Congress high command has been apparently slow to react. 

On the contrary, when Sonia Gandhi became party president, her photo was placed on the official board of the party headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in Delhi. Also, her picture was put up with that of other veteran leaders and members of the Gandhi-Nehru family in the room of every Congress office-bearer at Congress headquarters.

After Rahul Gandhi was appointed as general secretary and later party chief in 2017, his photos also made it to the rooms of AICC office-bearers immediately. In fact, Rahul's picture was replaced by that of Sonia on the official board of the party within 24 hours when she became the interim president in 2019. Photos of the two leaders have been already in AICC rooms and still it is. 

Congress MP and close associate of Kharge Nasir Hussain downplayed the delay and said it will be done soon. "I have not seen where the picture has not been put up, it has been used in the posters for publicity and manifestos. Rest of the places it will also be put up soon," he said. The situation is likely to give ammunition to the BJP to continue attacking the Congress on "family rule".

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. The last non-Gandhi Congress president was Sitaram Kesri, who was unceremoniously removed in 1998 just after two years into his five-year term. A leader with more than 50 years of experience in politics, Kharge is also the second All India Congress Committee (AICC) president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa and also the second Dalit leader after Jagjivan Ram to hold the post.