(MENAFN- NewsBytes)
Rahul Gandhi officially declared Congress chief
11 Dec 2017
After years of speculations, Rahul Gandhi has finally been declared the next Congress chief after his mother Sonia.
Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving chief of the party since 1998, will officially hand over the reins to the 47-year-old heir in the morning of December 16.
With this, Rahul will be the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to lead the Grand Old Party of India.
High drama ahead of nominations as Poonawalla alleges "rigged" elections
Drama
There was high drama earlier as just before Rahul's nomination, Shehzad Poonawalla, brother of Tehseen Poonawalla (Robert Vadra's cousin's husband), alleged the elections are rigged.
"Congress has no place for Shehzad, but for Shehzada," he said.
PM Modi brought up the controversy at a Gujarat rally, saying, "Those who have no internal democracy can't work for the people."
How does Congress elect its chief anyway?
Election
After the Congress Working Committee (CWC) sets the schedule, any ten delegates may propose a candidate for president.
To win, a candidate has to secure more than 50% votes. If none does, second-preference votes would be counted.
If there's just one candidate, they are declared President. They take charge from the next plenary session.
The president is elected for a term of five years.
What would Rahul's political approach be?
Approach
Rahul has recently sought to re-invent himself by scathingly attacking the government's economic policies and upping his social media presence.
As far as his economic orientation is concerned, ET reports that under him Congress will tilt towards a pro-poor populist approach, while focusing on economic reforms.
He has been resonating with the youth promising them jobs, as rising unemployment is considered BJP's Achilles heel.
Can Rahul bring in the votes this time around?
Rahul 2.0
Will Rahul 2.0 who takes up Congress' mantle be able to draw votes?
This question will be answered by year-end when both Gujarat and Himachal go to polls.
Presently, Congress is at an all-time low with only 44 LS seats and only five states having Congress governments.
In case Congress performs abysmally in the upcoming elections, they might want to re-think their prime-ministerial candidate.
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