The Congress party elected veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge as its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years on Wednesday.
Out of the 9,385 votes polled in the Congress presidential polls, Mallikarjun Kharge got 7,897 votes, Shashi Tharoor secured 1,072 votes, and 416 votes were declared invalid, the party’s Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said.
In fact, Kharge won with eight times more votes. He has not shared anything yet on his Twitter handle. Shashi Tharoor took it in a good spirit and 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.
MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the president was the ‘supreme authority in the Congress and whoever got elected to the post would decide on the way forward (for the party). “President is the supreme authority in the Congress and everyone reports to him. My role – I am very clear – Congress president will decide what my role is and how I will be deployed,” he remarked as Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Andhra Pradesh.
Shashi Tharoor pinned this on his Twitter handle in perfect sportsmanship spirit, “It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of @INCIndia & I wish @Kharge
ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues, & to carry the hopes & aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India.” He also said, “I believe the revival of our party has truly begun today.”
It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of @INCIndia &I wish @Kharge ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues,& to carry the hopes& aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India. pic.twitter.com/NistXfQGN1
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 19, 2022
Congress central election authority chairman Mistry on Monday voiced satisfaction with the party’s presidential polls process, saying it was “free, fair and transparent”. He 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.
Congress supporter, Anshuman Sail, reflecting back at Sonia Gandhi, the previous president 24 years ago, when Smt. Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress party, it was divided into 15 parts with every regional leader having own Congress.
Bringing Congress together and then to power twice in centre was an impossible task. But madam achieved it. Best CP ever.”
24 years ago, when Smt. Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress party, it was divided into 15 parts with every regional leader having own Congress.
Bringing Congress together and then to power twice in centre was an impossible task. But madam achieved it. Best CP ever.
— Anshuman Sail (@AnshumanSail) October 19, 2022