The Congress on Monday officially announced that Rahul Gandhi has been elected unopposed as the party’s president.
Rahul — who would collect the certificate formally declaring his ascension to the post on December 16 — succeeds his mother Sonia Gandhi, who remained in the post for 19 years. The 47-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family was the lone candidate in the fray.
Congress Central Election Authority (CEA) chief Mullappally Ramachandran announced that CEA received a total of 89 nomination papers proposing Rahul’s name for the top post. “All the nomination papers were found to be valid. Since the withdrawal of date/time is over and as there is only one candidate (Rahul), as per Article XVII (d) of the Constitution of Indian National Congress, I hereby declare Rahul elected as president of the Indian National Congress,” Ramachandran said.
Rahul became the vice-president of the party in January 2013. Of the 15 people who led the 132-year-old grand old party of India, four belonged to the Gandhi-Nehru family and Rahul is the fifth.
The party had chiefs from mixed background, including foreign origin. The Nehru-Gandhi clan was at the helm of affairs of the party after Independence for 38 years: Jawaharlal Nehru for three years, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for eight years each, and Sonia for a record 19 years. Indira held the post in 1959 and 1978-84, her son Rajiv in 1984-91 and daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi from 1998 till date.
Long before Independence, Rahul’s great-great grandfather, Motilal Nehru, headed the party. Decades before questions were raised about Sonia’s foreign origin, the party had five presidents who were not born in India.