Sonia also recalls Oscar Fernandes, from Karnataka, and describes him as a “trustworthy member” of the Congress Working Committee, whose “loss grieves me”.
Sonia Gandhi described Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as a “man with gravitas” and she “felt free” and “overwhelmingly relieved” after he took over as party chief.
In her memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, she writes that Congress is the “only party in India” that holds organisational elections, an “elaborate exercise” involving “every” party unit in the country.
The process was interrupted for a while due to the Covid-19 pandemic but the “massive exercise” was concluded in October 2022 with Kharge winning the presidential polls with 84 per cent votes against Shashi Tharoor.
She writes that he is a party veteran who had come up through the party ranks as a student activist and labour leader.
“When he was just seven years old, his home and family had been set on fire in caste riots, leaving him and his father. He fought injustice all his life and remained committed to the ideals of the Congress party…An experienced and respected leader, he was a man with gravitas. When he took charge, I felt overwhelmingly relieved, as if a mountain had been taken off my back. I felt free,” she recalls.
In her memoir, Sonia also recalls Oscar Fernandes, who hailed from Karnataka, and describes him as a “trustworthy member” of the Congress Working Committee, whose “loss grieves me”.