'You Had One Face Before Me And Different Face In Media': Congress On Shashi Tharoor's Poll Charges

As many as 9,500 delegates voted in the election and a voter turnout of 96 per cent was recorded.

Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor casts his vote at the party office, in Thiruvananthapuram (Source: File photo/PTI)

New Delhi: Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudhan Mistry on Thursday reacted on Shashi Tharoor speaking to the media about his concerns regarding the election irregularities, as reported by the news agency PTI.

"We accommodated your request and despite that, you went to media alleging Central Election Authority was conspiring against you," said Madhusudhan.

"I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you're satisfied with all our answers & different face in the media which made all these allegations against us," he added.

On Wednesday Congress presidential poll candidate Shashi Tharoor alleged irregularities in the poll process and demanded the cancellation of all the votes in Uttar Pradesh, sources told ABP News. In a letter written to Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, election agent to Tharoor, Salman Soz alleged of “extremely serious irregularities in the conduct of election in UP” and demanded that all votes from UP be deemed inavlid,” quoted by news agency ANI. 

It was also alleged that unauthorised people were inside polling stations and proponents of Kharge were giving instructions to the voters. 

The Tharoor camp also raised allegations that due procedure was not followed during the sealing of the ballot box. 

Mallikarjun Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor by a massive margin in the Congress Presidential election. Kharge became the first non-Gandhi president of Congress after 24 years. As many as 9,500 delegates voted in the election and a voter turnout of 96 per cent was recorded. 

A total of 9,385 votes were counted, out of which Mallikarjun Kharge received 7,897 votes and Shashi Tharoor received 1,072 and 416 votes were invalid, Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said in a press conference.

"It is my hope and belief that the family will remain the foundational pillar of the Congress, our moral conscience and ultimate guiding spirit. In particular, the spectacular success of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra is a testament to the family’s enduring appeal to the masses," said the MP from Kerala who got 1,072 votes against Kharge's 7,897.

He said that in a true celebration of inner-party democracy, over 9,500 delegates of the Congress cast their vote in the elections for the post of party president.

"Today, the final verdict has been in favour of Mallikarjun Kharge ji. I would like to convey my warm congratulations to him for his victory. The decision of the party delegates is final and I accept it humbly," Tharoor said.

The counting of the votes, which was scheduled to begin at 10 am at the AICC headquarters, started around 10:20 am. All sealed ballot boxes from the 68 polling booths set up across the country had been brought to the party office by Tuesday evening and kept in a "strong room" at the party office.