Rahul Gandhi officially announced new Congress president, to take charge on December 16.

NEWDELHI: It is now official. Rahul Gandhi is set to take over as Congress president on December 16.

Senior party leader Mullappally Ramachandran made the announcement on Monday afternoon. “Eighty-nine nomination proposals were received. All were valid. Since there was only one candidate, I hereby declare Rahul Gandhi elected as the president of Indian National Congress,” he said.

However, his ascent to the Congress leadership has not been without dissent. A party leader from Maharashtra had alleged that the election was rigged. Another partyman had alleged that he was not being allowed to file his nomination against Rahul.

The announcement is the culmination of what began at a Congress Working Committee meeting on November 20, which passed a resolution to make Rahul the party president. 

The CWC meeting was attended by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Manmohan Singh along with senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel. The meeting was convened at Sonia’s residence.

Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination on December 4, in the presence of former PM Manmohan Singh and other senior Congress leaders.

The handover of the party from one generation to yet another of the Nehru-Gandhi family comes as Sonia’s Gandhi’s has suffered from an extended period of ill health. She is the longest-serving party president, having helmed it since 1997.

Rahul, who became the Congress vice president in January 2013, will succeed his mother Sonia.

Rahul has already been running the party for a few months now, according to party leaders.

Rahul Gandhi will be the 16th president of the storied Indian National Congress since Independence. He will become the sixth member of his family to hold the post, the fifth since Independence. The 47-year-old Gandhi will follow in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru, great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi.

The formal elevation will come just days after Gujarat votes in its second and final phase of the Assembly election.