New Delhi: The elected AICC new Chief Mallikarjun Kharge will take charge as AICC Chief on Wednesday at AICC Head Quarters in New Delhi. The oath taking preparations were underway at AICC HQ, where party President Sonia Gandhi will hand over the baton to Kharge.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the outfit in 24 years. Kharge defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the top post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race. Security personnel and workers made last-minute arrangements on the AICC headquarters lawns where a tent was being put up and in the Congress President’s office room.

Chairman of the central election authority of the Congress Madhusudan Mistry will formally hand over the election certificate to Kharge at the function, which will also see the presence of outgoing chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

For Kharge, who has served as a leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha and later leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, the current assignment comes at a time when the party is at a historic low, electorally.

Congress now having power in only two states Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh  on its own and in partnership as a junior partner in Jharkhand, Kharge’s first challenge is to bring the party to power in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, which go to polls in the next few weeks.

Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh are on November 12 but the dates for Gujarat are yet to be announced. Kharge begin his political career as Chief of the Gulbarga city council, Kharge has also served as a State Minister and a Lok Sabha MP from Gulbarga (2009 and 2014). The old warhorse is well known for not losing an election barring the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Gulbarga.

It was after that loss that Sonia Gandhi brought Kharge to the Rajya Sabha and in February 2021 made him the leader of the opposition. A leader with more than 50 years of experience in politics, Kharge is also the second AICC President from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa and also the second Dalit leader after Jagjivan Ram to hold the post.