Congress Prez Polls: ‘Proxy’ Kharge or ‘Candidate of Change’ Tharoor? All Eyes on…

Voting ended for Congress presidential polls on Monday with 9,500 party delegates across the country casting their ballots to choose between senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor as the successor to Sonia Gandhi. The polling was the grand old party’s first such exercise to elect its first non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.

The new president will replace Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving Congress president who has been at the helm since 1998, barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when Rahul Gandhi took over. Sonia Gandhi became the interim president of the party after Rahul Gandhi resigned in 2019 over the party’s poll debacle.

In the face-off between Kharge and Tharoor, some senior leaders and party members have expressed favour for Kharge. The Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka was noted to likely win the polls due to his perceived close relationship with the Gandhis while Tharoor has positioned himself as the “candidate for change.”

In its 137-year history, the party has chosen a new leader through elections six times. The last election for the post of Congress president was held in 2000 when Sonia Gandhi handed Jitendra Prasada a crushing defeat.

Here are the top ten updates from the Congress presidential polls today:

• Voting in the 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.
• Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, cast his vote at the Karnataka Congress office in Bengaluru. The Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka said 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 a tweet late in the evening, Kharge thanked all delegates including Seva Dal volunteers, office bearers and party workers for the smooth elections conducted across the country. He also said, “I am grateful to all my colleagues for their support and cooperation throughout the campaign. All Congress workers will stand together and renew our efforts to build a stronger Congress and stronger India.”
• Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor voted in the Kerala capital. He told media 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.
• The 66-year-old ignited intense political speculation after posted an ambiguous quote in Hindi, saying “we fight some battles only so that history can remember that the present was not silent.”
• “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. Tharoor had earlier alleged that he was fighting on ‘uneven ground’ as several senior Congress leaders rallied behind Kharge. However, both candidates have maintained that the Gandhis are neutral and there is no official candidate.
• The nationwide mood in the election to the post of Congress president favours senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge and he is the favourite of party voters, former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Su Thirunavukarasar said. “The election was held in a transparent manner across the country and Kharge appeared to be the apparent choice of party delegates everywhere,” he was quoted as saying.
• Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee who had left his father’s party to join Trinamool Congress also expressed support for Kharge. “Urge every voter of @INCIndia party to elect @Kharge ji, a very senior and experienced leader who has led @INCIndia Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha,” Mukherjee, who has been twice elected as Congress MP from Jangipur, said in a tweet.
• Sonia Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came together at the AICC headquarters in Delhi and cast their vote. Sonia Gandhi said, “I have been waiting for a long time for this day.” Later, former prime minister Manmohan Singh also cast his ballot in the polls at the party headquarters.
• Meanwhile, senior leader Ambika Soni asserted that the Gandhi family cannot be ignored and the party workers’ attachment with them would remain. Soni said she played a key role in the formation of the UPA government and the Congress’ win in the 2004 polls, beating the BJP’s ‘Shining India’ campaign. Soni further said, “I don’t have any role. I have served 52 years in the Congress party. I want Sonia-ji’s role to be there as our guide, friend, philosopher, as MP, CLP…It will be there.”
• Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik said the Gandhi family has a very long history spread over 100 years and its members have played a very important role in the freedom struggle which nobody could disregard. “After getting independence also, they have contributed immensely in building a modern India. When time demanded, they even made the supreme sacrifice, nobody can forget the sacrifices made by Indira-ji, Rajiv-ji and the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru in giving a vision for the building of modern India,” he said.
• Congress’ central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry announced 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. 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.
• The Congress also said the elections were conducted without any reports of adverse incidents. “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.
• Congress has said no one should have any apprehensions regarding the polling as it is a secret ballot and nobody will get to know who voted for whom. Mistry also said that the entire polling was recorded in cameras.
• 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.
• The results of the election will be declared on October 19, after ballots from all PCC offices reach Delhi and the votes polled are mixed before counting.
• Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, once a frontrunner for the top party post, said in Jaipur that his relationship with the Gandhi family will be the “same for life”, even after October 19. He also said there is no substitute for experience at any level and suggested that young leaders should have patience as they would get their chances when the time comes.

(With inputs from agencies)

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