India’s opposition Congress party elects new president

India’s main opposition Congress party elected Mallikarjun Kharge as its new president on Wednesday in a contest in which the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has led the party for more than two decades, did not compete.
The party has struggled to regain support since being routed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.
Kharge, 80, from the southern state of Karnataka, was backed by the party’s top leaders. His challenger, Shashi Tharoor, 66, spent nearly 30 years at the United Nations before joining the Congress party in 2009.
Kharge received more than 80% of the votes, local media reported.
Interim party President Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, announced last month that no one from the family would seek the party’s leadership at this time.