‘I am feeling truly relieved’, says Sonia Gandhi as she passes the mantle to Mallikarjun Kharge

New Delhi, October 26

Outgoing congress president Sonia Gandhi today said she felt relieved that the responsibility of Congress Presidency is finally going over to Mallikarjun Kharge who, she said, would serve as a huge inspiration to the party and help it face the top challenge of assault on democratic values which the country is facing today.

“I am very happy today. I am feeling truly relieved. The highest level of satisfaction is of the issue that the leader who is Congress president is a senior, rooted leader and he has always worked as a common soldier of the party and has reached this position through hard work and resilience,” Sonia said at the formal takeover by Kharge, 80.

Sonia said she was sure the party will draw inspiration from Mallikarjun Kharge and the party will strengthen under him.

“I feel relieved because the love and respect you gave me all these years is a matter of pride and I will feel this love till the last breath of life. This respect was a huge responsibility. I did all I could as per my capacity and capability. Today I will be relieved of this responsibility and this burden will be off (at this point Kharge said no you will not be relieved). Now the responsibility is on Kharge ji,” said Sonia.

She said change is the law of the world. “Just like we face new challenges in life we face several challenges for the party the top being the danger on the democratic values of India, and how we will face this. Congress has faced many crisis earlier also but never accepted defeat. We have to move forward strongly and succeed,” said Sonia, the longest-serving party chief in its 137-year history.