Rahul Gandhi is Congress President, to take charge of party on Dec 16
New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi has been elected as the President of the Indian National Congress, Congress Central Election Authority chairman Mullapally Ramachandran announced on Monday.
Sonia Gandhi will officially hand over the mantle of the 132-year-old party to her son around 11 am on Saturday.
"Rahul will be handed over the certificate of his election as the party president on December 16 at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office," Ramachandran said.
"A total of 89 nomination proposals were received and all were valid. Since there was only one candidate…Rahul Gandhi was elected as the president of Indian National Congress," Ramachandran said.
Uttarakhand: Celebration at Congress office in Dehradun after Rahul Gandhi elected as the party President. pic.twitter.com/6fWeG1bGYt
— ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2017
While pageantry would herald the dawn of a new era in the party which has ruled the country for over half-a-century since Independence, the 47-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family will face the daunting task of restoring lost glory to the party whose fortunes have been dwindling in the recent past.
The Congress has been losing state after state since the 2014 Lok Sabha election with the exception of Punjab.
