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India's Congress Party Appoints Sonia Gandhi Interim Chief

Associated Press

   NEW DELHI -- India's main opposition Congress party on Saturday
   appointed Sonia Gandhi to serve as interim president until it elects a
   new party chief.
   The party accepted the resignation of her son Rahul Gandhi, who quit in
   July after Congress' crushing defeat in national elections. He
   continues to be a member of Parliament.

   A party working committee then askedSonia Gandhi, 72, to take over in a
   stop-gap arrangement, party spokesmanK.C. Venugopalsaid.
   Sonia Gandhi handed the top party post to her son in 2017 after she
   suffered health problems. The party has long been led by the
   politically powerful Nehru-Gandhi family.
   Prime Minister Narendra Modi'sBharatiyaJanata Party won 303 out of 542
   seats in the lower house of Parliament, while the Congress party won 52
   seats in April-May elections.
   In January, Rahul Gandhi inducted his sister Priyanka GandhiVadrainto
   politics as a party general secretary months before the national
   elections.
   Several Congress leaders wantVadra, 47,to succeedRahul Gandhi as party
   president. She has in the past helped her mother and brother campaign
   in their constituencies in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
   Rahul Gandhi's father, Rajiv Gandhi, his grandmother, Indira Gandhi,
   and his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, have all served as prime
   minister since India's independence from British colonialists in 1947.
   Rahul Gandhi entered politics in 2004.

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