Rahul Gandhi takes over as president of Congress party

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Days after being elected unopposed, India's Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi took over as the country's main opposition Indian National Congress party chief on Saturday.

At a function held in Delhi, the 47-year-old assumed the reins of the Congress from his mother Sonia Gandhi, who had been the president of the 132-year-old political party since 1998.

Gandhi was given a formal certificate of being elected the Congress president unopposed from the party's central election authority at 11:00 a.m. local time.

Gandhi was in fact elected to the top post on Monday after no one else in the Congress challenged him in the party's internal election that was held a week earlier.

Gandhi had previously held the post of Congress vice-president for over three years.

There had been growing clamor in the party that Gandhi be made the Congress chief by partymen, mostly youths, as many believe he will infuse new energy to the party.

Newly elected President of the Indian National Congress party Rahul Gandhi (L) receives flowers during a ceremony at the Indian National Congress party headquarters in New Delhi on December 16, 2017. /VCG Photo

Rahul, wearing a long flowing white kurta, smiled and waved from the dais adorned with posters of his late grandmother and father, former prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.

Slogans of "long live Rahul" were shouted as hundreds of supporters danced to drum beats and burst firecrackers.

Gandhi was elected unopposed to take over from his mother who has been at the helm since 1998 following the assassination of her husband Rajiv. She helped the Congress win the general elections in 2004 and 2009.

But the party was swept out of office by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right wing Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014 and is now in a fight to win back support before a national election which must be held by 2019.

Rahul has been party vice-president since 2013 and led its campaign for the 2014 election.

He was strongly criticized for what was Congress' worst-ever showing as it lost power to Modi.

Since then, the party has lost polls in many states to the BJP, exposing Rahul to further criticism.

On Saturday Sonia was handed a memento by former prime minister Manmohan Singh as a token of appreciation for her "astute leadership" over the years.

Source(s): AFP ,Xinhua News Agency