Rahul Gandhi as Congress president: How will his new team look like

After years of dithering and uncertainty, the D-day finally arrived today. Congress vice-president was elevated as party president replacing his mother Sonia Gandhi.

The outgoing president created a record by remaining on the post for 19 years - the longest period 19 years.

Sonia Gandhi is credited with leading the Congress to power at the Centre twice - in 2004 and 2009. However, the party's decline also started during her regime when it lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It was the most humiliating defeat of the Congress ever as it won just 44 of the 543 seats.

The Congress under Sonia also lost a number of Assembly elections such as in Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and West Bengal.

Rahul Gandhi will take over the baton of the party from his mother at a time when the Congress is passing through its worst phase ever in its history, worse even than the post-Emergency years.

After remaining a reluctant politician for several years, Rahul Gandhi finally took the plunge in full-time politics, taking over the mantle from his mother. Otherwise, there were talks even of his sister Priyanka Vadra succeeding Sonia Gandhi as the party president.

Rahul Gandhi contested Lok Sabha election for the first time in 2004 from Amethi and won. He became Congress general secretary in 2007 and vice-president 2013.

All this while, the party stood solidly behind Rahul Gandhi, even though he would do disappearing acts in between or would proceed on leave and fly abroad in the midst of crucial events happening in the country.

A battery of senior leaders played a major role in grooming Rahul Gandhi while others lent a helping hand when they stood by him in his thick and thin.

Now that Rahul Gandhi has been declared as the Congress president, he will form his own team. Whenever that happens, Rahul does not believe in one core team taking all the decisions.

So far, Rahul Gandhi has been assisted by these eight groups:

POLITICAL GURUS

Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad.

ECONOMIC ADVISORS

Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor.

ISSUE-BASED CONSULTANTS

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Maken, K Raju, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Sam Pitroda, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Deepak Babaria and Veerappa Moily.

RESEARCH AND NUMBER CRUNCHES

Madhusudan Mistry, CP Joshi and Rajeev Gowda.

COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA ADVISOR

Randeep Singh Surjewala.

YOUNG FAVOURITES

Head of social cell Divya Spandana, head of All Inia Mahila Congress Sushmita Dev, Ranjeet Ranjan, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Rajeev Satav.

FRIENDS IN OTHER PARTIES

Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Akhilesh Yadav, Stalin, Kanimozhi, Tejashwi Yadav.

Rahul Gandhi is expected to make ornamental changes in the old team. By and large, the composition of his team will remain the same.Rahul's new team will not be a break from the past. It wpould be seen as a continuum of the old one.

He is likely to maintain a delicate balance between the old guard and the young blood. His team will be a blend of experience and exuberance.