Veteran politician Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected as the first leader of India’s Congress Party — its first non-Gandhi head in more than two decades.
At least 9,500 members of the State Congress Committees, including the electoral college, voted on Monday to choose between party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor.
Mr Kharge, 80, a parliamentarian from the southern Karnataka state, won with nearly 8,000 votes while Mr Tharoor, 66, polled slightly more than 1,000, Madhusudan Mistry, the chairman of the party’s Central Election Authority, said on Wednesday.
Party workers distributed sweets and set off firecrackers at the headquarters in capital Delhi to celebrate the victory.
Born into a poor Dalit family, formerly known as untouchables, Mr Kharge started as a student leader and joined the party in 1969. He rose swiftly through the ranks to become leader of the party, the oldest in India.
The centre-left party had been led by the Gandhi family for nearly 25 years, drawing allegations from political rivals who have accused it of ignoring democratic process.
Supporters of Mr Tharoor had earlier alleged irregularities in the polling process but the parliamentarian, who was first to declare his intention to run in the election, dismissed such claims and congratulated Mr Khrage on his victory.
“This election was meant to strengthen the INC and not to divide … it is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of INC India and I wish Kharge ji all success in that task,” Mr Tharoor tweeted, as he conceded defeat.
It is the sixth time in the history of the Congress Party that an electoral contest has been held to choose its leader.
The 137-year-old party has produced three prime ministers and ruled India for more than half the time since the country gained independence from Britain in 1947.
Former leaders include ex-prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and grandson Rajiv Gandhi — both also former prime ministers of India.
After Gandhi’s assassination, his widow Sonia Gandhi became the president in 1998 and helped the party to revive its electoral fortunes, leading it to back-to-back national election triumphs in 2004 and 2009.
She stepped down as party leader in 2017 in the run-up to the 2019 general election and handed the baton to her son, Rahul, but returned as interim chief in 2019 after the electoral drubbing that year.
Mr Gandhi stepped down from the post and has since firmly refused to return as party president, despite pressure from a section of Congress leaders.
He is currently leading a foot march to connect with Indians across the country before the 2024 general election.
But experts are sceptical of whether the new president can mobilise voter support and revive the party's electoral fortunes, which have been in decline in recent years after back-to-back defeats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Many critics and political rivals have blamed weak leadership and “nepotism” for the crushing electoral defeats.
Mr Modi has blasted the Gandhis for running the party as a “family enterprise”, and particularly Mr Rahul for lacking political acumen.
The 52-year-old Congress leader, known as the “reluctant politician”, stepped down from the party president’s post after the 2019 defeat, leaving his mother to take over as interim leader.
Arathi Jerath, a political analyst in Delhi, says the future of the party will depend on whether Mr Rahul and his sister Priyanka adopt a hands-off approach and allow the new president to function independently and adopt an inclusive approach to infuse fresh enthusiasm within the ranks.
Ms Jerath told The National he would find it difficult at this stage in his political career to revive party fortunes.
“However, he can play the role of a nightwatchman and with the help of the Gandhis, put in place mechanisms to make the party more democratic and inclusive,” she said.
“Ultimately it boils down to the Gandhis and whether they are genuinely interested in strengthening the organisation and whether they have a vision for a new Congress in which the family does not dominate and allows strong local leaders to emerge."
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Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
More coverage from the Future Forum
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
Sonchiriya
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Producer: RSVP Movies, Azure Entertainment
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Manoj Bajpayee, Ashutosh Rana, Bhumi Pednekar, Ranvir Shorey
Rating: 3/5
