NEW DELHI, Oct 17:
More than 9,500 Congress delegates across the country today voted to elect the party’s first non-Gandhi president in 24 years, choosing between senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor as successor to Sonia Gandhi.
Of the total 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates that form the electoral college to pick the party chief in a secret ballot, over 9,500 cast their ballot at all PCC offices and the AICC headquarters in Delhi, party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry announced here.
The results of election will be declared on October 19, after ballots from all PCC offices reach Delhi and the votes polled are mixed before counting.
“I have been waiting for a long time for this day,” Congress chief Sonia Gandhi told reporters after voting at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters here.
Sonia Gandhi, who had been the party president from 1998 to 2017, was made interim president after Rahul Gandhi resigned in 2019 over the party’s poll debacle.
Voting in the much discussed elections, viewed by some as an exercise aimed at putting the party on the path to revival, began at 10 am at the AICC headquarters and at polling booths in PCC offices across the country.
Mistry expressed satisfaction over the poll process and claimed that the election has been “free, fair, and transparent”. He, however, said that he cannot force anyone to attend someone’s meeting, reacting to Tharoor’s charge that there was no level playing field.
Kharge is considered the favourite for his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and has the backing of senior leaders, even as Tharoor has pitched himself as the “candidate of change”.
Mistry said the exercise started around two years ago and more than 9,900 delegates, one from every block in the country, were selected for this election.
“Today’s election was held across the country. Out of a total 9,915 delegates, over 9,500 voted, with around 96 per cent voting in the Congress president’s elections,” he told reporters.
“The most satisfactory thing for us was that in all states where polling booths were set up, no adverse incident was reported. This is a big achievement…Polls were held in an open process and in a peaceful manner,” Mistry said.
Mistry said no one should have any apprehensions as it is a secret ballot and nobody will get to know who voted for whom. He also said that the entire polling was recorded in cameras.
This is an example of democracy within the party and any party can draw lessons from this internal democracy, he said, adding that 87 delegates, most of them Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, voted at the AICC headquarters.
He further said a total of 50 delegates, including Rahul Gandhi, participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, cast their vote in the polling booth set up at camp site near Ballari in Karnataka.
Asked whether there will be voting for the new CWC, he said it will depend on the new Congress president and the decision of party’s plenary session.
Mistry termed his experience as “very good” and said the election was like an “utsav”.
Besides Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among those who voted in Delhi. (PTI)
Kharge, 80, a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka who is tipped to win the election because of his proximity to the Gandhis, cast his ballot at the Karnataka Congress office in Bengaluru. His electoral rival and Thiruvananthapuram MP Tharoor, 66, voted in the Kerala capital.
Kharge said in Bengaluru that Tharoor called him up and wished him good luck and he wished him the same. The two were contesting internal polls on a friendly note to strengthen the Congress to build a stronger and better nation for the future generations, he said.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor said he is confident of victory even though the odds were stacked against him as leaders and establishment were with the other candidate.
“India needs a strong Congress. I did not contest for my political future, but for that of the Congress and India. I am here as a viable alternative. I am standing for change. A change in how the party functions,” he said.
“Spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge this morning to wish him well and to reaffirm my respect for him and our shared devotion to the success of Congress,” Tharoor added in a tweet, noting that the Congress’ revival had begun.
“Some people play safe in order not to lose. But if you just play safe, you will definitely lose,” Thaoor tweeted in the morning, using the hashtag “#ThinkTomorrowThinkTharoor”.
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