'He Should Have Come To Us, Not To Press': Madhusudan Mistry On Shashi Tharoor's Complaint

Mistry responded to the allegation raised by Shashi Tharoor about irregularities in the poll process and said that a "point-by-point answer will be given to him".

Congress Central Election Authority chairman, Madhusudan Mistry

Source : YouTube/Indian National Congress

New Delhi: Congress Central Election Authority chairman, Madhusudan Mistry responded to the allegation raised by Shashi Tharoor about irregularities in the poll process saying that it is party's internal matter and added that a "point-by-point answer will be given to him". Mistry also said that the letter written by Tharoor was "more of a general complaint and nothing specific". 

"He should not have given the letter to the press, rather should have come to us," he added. 

The party election chief also refuted Tharoor's claim that unauthorised people were inside polling stations.

On the allegation of non-observance of due process during sealing of ballots in Uttar Pradesh, Mistry told the media: "UP had 6 ballot boxes, of which 4 didn't have any issues. We got the seals of all ballot boxes checked by him (Shashi Tharoor) this morning. He stated, 2 ballot boxes did not have the embossed ballot box numbers." 

Congress senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge was announced as the new President of the Indian National Congress by Mistry in a press conference held following the counting of votes. Of the total 9,385 votes polled on October 17, Kharge received 7,897 votes while Tharoor got 1,072 votes and 416 were invalid poll. 

With this, 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. 

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.

The polls are historic as the new president would 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.