India’s opposition Congress party elected a former minister on Wednesday as its first president in 24 years not from the Gandhi dynasty, in an effort to reverse its electoral decline amid the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, was appointed by members over fellow politician Shashi Tharoor, a former under-secretary general for communications and public information at the United Nations, to replace Sonia Gandhi as president of the once-dominant party that won India’s independence from British rule 75 years ago.
