New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will formally take over as party president on December 16 — two days before the announcement of results for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, party sources said.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will officially hand over the mantle of the 132-year-old party to her son at the party headquarters here around 11 am on December 16.
As per the schedule for the election for the top party post, December 11 is the last day to withdraw nomination from the contest in which Mr Gandhi is the only candidate in the fray.
Since Mr Gandhi is campaigning in Gujarat he is likely to collect the certificate confirming his election as party president on December 16, said a party insider.
Taking over of Mr Gandhi as Congress president is expected usher in the winds of change in the Congress. Though the involvement of Mr Gandhi had increased tremendously since the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, insiders indicate that there will be two key advisors directly reporting to the new Congress president.
On several occasions, Mr Gandhi has indicated that there will be a judicious mix of young and experienced leaders in the party and that nobody will be left out.
In the ongoing Gujarat Assembly elections, Mr Gandhi has tried to shed the tag of being a reluctant politician with his aggressive campaign. Starting from middle of September, Mr Gandhi has almost made 15 campaigning trips to the state. On taking the party’s charge from his mother, Mr Gandhi will become the sixth generation of the Gandhi-Nehru family to serve as Congress president.
The first member from the family to head the Congress was Motilal Nehru. He was followed Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, who has been the longest serving Congress president clocking in a reign of 19 years.
