Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was formally declared elected yesterday as the next president of the 132-year old party, founded in 1885 by A.O. Hume and Dadabhai Naoroji in the nineteenth century. Rahul thus becomes the 87th president of one of the party, which led the freedom movement in the country.

Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, who had been the president for 19 years now, hasn’t been keeping good health for the past few years which made senior leaders prop up Rahul as the obvious successor. 89 leaders from actors States/UTs filed nominations on behalf of Rahul Gandhi as president and Rahul has thus been elected unopposed overwhelmingly. He would be given the ‘certificate of election’ on 16th December (this Saturday) by his mother and outgoing party president Sonia Gandhi.

Rahul thus keeps the Congress’ legacy of opting for ‘Nehru family’ members as party president as he succeeds his illustrious great-great grand-father Motilal Nehru, great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, grandmother Indira Gandhi, father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi as the party president. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wished a happy tenure to Rahul Gandhi on his election as Congress president.

Modi thus joins many other leaders who have wished Rahul cutting across party affiliations. In his Twitter message, Modi said “I congratulate Rahul Ji on his election as Congress president; my best wishes for a fruitful future.”