Rahul Gandhi officially takes over as Congress President; celebrations begin
Rahul Gandhi has taken over the charge as President of the 132-year-old Congress party from his mother and Congress's longest-serving Chief Sonia Gandhi, who became the President in 1998. The ceremony took place at Congress's 24 Akbar Road headquarters in Delhi. Celebrations have already begun outside the party's headquarters. Congress workers and supporters started bursting crackers; folk dancers from different states are also present.
Rahul Gandhi officially declared Congress chief
After years of speculations, Rahul Gandhi was recently declared the next Congress chief after his mother Sonia. Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving chief of the party since 1998, would officially hand over the reins to the 47-year-old heir in the morning of December 16. With this, Rahul will be the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to lead the Grand Old Party of India.
The official announcement
High drama ahead of nominations as Poonawalla alleges "rigged" elections
There was high drama earlier as just before Rahul's nomination, Shehzad Poonawalla, brother of Tehseen Poonawalla (Robert Vadra's cousin's husband), alleged the elections are rigged. "Congress has no place for Shehzad, but for Shehzada," he said. PM Modi brought up the controversy at a Gujarat rally, saying, "Those who have no internal democracy can't work for the people."
What would Rahul's political approach be?
Rahul has recently sought to re-invent himself by scathingly attacking the government's economic policies and upping his social media presence. As far as his economic orientation is concerned, ET reports that under him Congress will tilt towards a pro-poor populist approach, while focusing on economic reforms. He has been resonating with the youth promising them jobs, as rising unemployment is considered BJP's Achilles heel.
Can Rahul bring in the votes this time around?
Will Rahul 2.0 who takes up Congress's mantle be able to draw votes? This question will be answered by year-end when both Gujarat and Himachal go to polls. Presently, Congress is at an all-time low with only 44 LS seats and only five states having Congress governments. In case Congress performs abysmally in the upcoming elections, they might want to re-think their prime-ministerial candidate.
