"I know, you did it all for love," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Wednesday in an Instagram tribute showing her mother Sonia Gandhi, who on Wednesday handed the Congress' reins to a new party president, holding a photograph of the late Rajiv Gandhi. Mallikarjun Kharge, the first non-Gandhi party chief in 24 years, presented the framed photograph of Rajiv Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi at the AICC headquarters. Party workers cheered as the once reclusive Sonia Gandhi, who headed the party for almost 20 years, held the picture of her husband aloft. In a heartfelt post on Twitter, Sonia Gandhi's son Rahul Gandhi said, "Ma, Dadi once told me you were the daughter she never had. How right she was.

I'm really proud to be your son." The former Congress chief also shared a picture of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi together. In her emotive social media post showing a photograph of both her parents, Priyanka Gandhi said, "So proud of you Ma, no matter what the world says or thinks, I know, you did it all for love." In a statement of gratitude to Sonia Gandhi read out by Congress leader Ajay Maken at the event, the party said she has recognised and assimilated India in its various forms and in its unfathomable socio-cultural-geographical totality. "She derives her political inspiration from the profound love she feels for this great country.