Mallikarjun Kharge elected as Congress’ first non-Gandhi president in over two decades
NEW DELHI,OCT 19 : The Congress party elected veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge as its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years on Wednesday. Kharge secured 7897 votes while his co-contender Shashi Tharoor got about 1000 votes. 416 votes were rejected out of the 9, 500 votes counted.
Tharoor congratulated Kharge in a letter saying, “Our new President is a party colleague and senior who brings ample leadership and experience to the table.”
Kharge will replace Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving party president who has been at the helm since 1998, barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when Rahul Gandhi had taken over.
Congress central election authority chairman Mistry on Monday expressed satisfaction with the party’s presidential polls process, saying it was “free, fair and transparent”.
He has also said it was a secret ballot and no one would get to know who voted for whom.
Of the total 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates that formed the electoral college to pick the party chief in a secret ballot, over 9,500 cast their ballot at PCC offices and the AICC headquarters, Mistry had said at a press conference after the polling ended on Monday.
Electors in the Congress presidential polls had been asked to put a tick mark against their candidate in the ballot paper after Tharoor’s team took up with the party’s top poll body the issue of its earlier directive that voters write “1” to reflect their preference. This, the team said, might lead to confusion.
Ahead of the polling, Kharge had said he would have no shame in taking the advice and support of the Gandhi family in running the party affairs, if he becomes its president.
Tharoor, on his part, took a veiled dig at some senior leaders supporting Kharge, saying that some colleagues were “indulging in ‘netagiri’ and telling party workers that they know who Sonia Gandhi wants elected”.
–PTI
