Mallikarjun Kharge elected leader of India's Congress Party

Veteran politician Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected as the first leader of India’s Congress Party — its first non-Gandhi head in more than two decades.

At least 9,500 members of the State Congress Committees, including the electoral college, voted on Monday to choose between party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor.

Mr Kharge, 80, a parliamentarian from the southern Karnataka state, won with nearly 8,000 votes while Mr Tharoor, 66, polled slightly more than 1,000, Madhusudan Mistry, the chairman of the party’s Central Election Authority, said on Wednesday.

Party workers distributed sweets and set off firecrackers at the headquarters in capital Delhi to celebrate the victory.

Born into a poor Dalit family, formerly known as untouchables, Mr Kharge started as a student leader and joined the party in 1969. He rose swiftly through the ranks to become leader of the party, the oldest in India.

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