Congress Polls Live Updates: Mallikarjun Kharge during a public meeting as part of Bharat Jodo Yatra in Bellary, Karnataka; (right) Shashi Tharoor while paying tribute to former PM Rajiv Gandhi in Chennai. (PTI photos)Congress President Election 2022 Live Updates, Shashi Tharoor, Mallikarjun Kharge: Voting for the Congress presidential elections ended at 4 pm on Wednesday. The results are likely to be declared on October 19. The fate of the Congress party will be decided by over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who comprise the electoral college for electing the party chief. Senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are the only two candidates in the fray.
While Kharge has been considered the Gandhi family’s ‘unofficial official candidate’ with a large number of senior leaders backing him, Tharoor pitched himself as the candidate of change. This will be the sixth time in its nearly 137-year-old history that an electoral contest would decide who would take up the mantle of the party’s president.
Both candidates have been vigorously campaigning across India. In an interview with the Indian Express, Kharge said Sonia is a “key player” in the Congress, and the party cannot work without the guidance and advice of the Gandhis. The priority for him, he added, is to implement the organisational reforms announced at the Chintan Shivir in Udaipur. Meanwhile, Tharoor, alleged that the contest was not a level playing field in accessing the delegates. He pointed out that several PCC chiefs and senior leaders were not available for a meeting with him during his visits to their respective states, but they welcomed Kharge and showed their support when he visited them.
Lucknow: Congress party presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor addresses a press conference at the UPCC office in Lucknow, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022. (PTI Photo/Nand Kumar)
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring Monday hit out at the rivals parties for terming veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge as a “proxy” candidate of the Gandhi family, saying the “transparent” presidential poll in the grand old party has robbed them of the “dynastic” charge.
Even Shashi Tharoor, the other candidate in the presidential race, has not questioned the transparency and impartiality of the poll, Warring added.
“Since they have been robbed of the argument of dynastic politics with the democratic and transparent election process in the Congress, they have started saying so and so is the proxy candidate of the Gandhis. Supposing the candidate, that the opposition says is the proxy of the Gandhi family, wins, should not they accept and acknowledge the Gandhi family’s influence and the love it commands among the party workers across the country? Today’s election will clear all doubts about who rules the hearts of Congress workers across the country,” Warring said. Read more
From left to right in the top row, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor; and left to right in the bottom row, Ashok Gehlot, Jairam Ramesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Anand Sharma, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar cast their votes for the party's presidential election, October 17, 2022.
(PTI photo)
Soon after voting for electing the next Congress president came to an end, poll candidate and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and thanked all his colleagues, and party workers and delegates.
"My thanks to all the @INCIndia colleagues, workers, and delegates across the country who had the courage to participate, to campaign, to dream & to vote today -- whatever the result of this election, it is a victory for YOU! Jai Hind, Jai Congress," he tweeted.
The high-stakes contest between frontrunner Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor in the election for the post of Congress president drew a massive turnout of voters Monday with close to 96 per cent of Pradesh Congress Committee delegates casting their ballot, according to the party.
Setting the stage for the counting Wednesday, a visibly happy Sonia Gandhi, the outgoing Congress president, said after casting her vote at the AICC headquarters in Delhi: “I have been waiting for a long time for this day.” The result will mark the first time the party will get a non-Gandhi at the helm after more than two decades. Read full Political Pulse here
Taking a dig at former deputy CM Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said that there is no alternative to experience and that the youth should have patience and wait for their turn.
Talking to reporters after casting his vote for the party’s presidential elections at the state office in Jaipur, while batting for Mallikarjun Kharge, Gehlot said that leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, R P N Singh and Jitin Prasada, who left the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are “opportunists.” Read more
With the Congress set to elect its first non-Gandhi president in over 24 years, senior leaders on Monday stressed the Gandhi family’s guidance will be crucial and will play an important role in the party in the days to come.
The polls are significant as the new president would 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. Read more
As many as 277 Assam Pradesh Congress Committee delegates out of total 291 cast their votes on Monday to elect the next All India Congress Committee president.
An Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) release said that voting was conducted smoothly at Rajiv Bhavan in Guwahati. Ballot boxes were sealed after polling and will be flown to New Delhi later in the day.
Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor are in the fray for the top post in the party.
Both Kharge and Tharoor had recently visited Guwahati as part of their campaign trail. Counting of votes for the polls will be undertaken on October 19. (PTI)
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring Monday slammed rivals parties for terming Mallikarjun Kharge a "proxy" candidate of the Gandhi family, saying the "transparent" presidential poll has robbed them of the "dynastic" charge. Even the other candidate in the party's presidential election, the seasoned and widely respected Shashi Tharoor, has not questioned the transparency and impartiality of the poll, he said.
Asserting that Congress president is being elected democratically, he asked the rival parties to hold organisational elections like the grand old party. Voting in the much-discussed elections to choose the first non-Gandhi Congress chief was held at the AICC headquarters and polling booths in PCC offices across the country with Kharge and Tharoor in the fray. The results will be declared on October 19.
Warring said about 10,000 delegates constitute the electorate in the Congress presidential election. "How can anyone unduly influence 10,000 voters without getting noticed?" he posed while asserting that "every voter cast the vote of their own choice without any compulsion". (PTI)
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Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Monday said that around 96% of voting took place across states for the Congress president poll. "9,500 delegates cast their vote today. No untoward incident occurred...3 ballot boxes have been received- 87 people voted at AICC, Delhi," Mistry said in a statement, news agency ANI reported.
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been the favourite among the voters in electing the party president during the poll for the top post that was held on Monday, former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Su Thirunavukarasar has said.
Referring to the trend in voting pattern, he said the polling started early today. Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are in the fray as the grand old party is set to have a non-Gandhi president of the party in over 24 years.
After casting his vote, Thirunavukarasar, also an MP, said the elections are being held in a transparent manner and Kharge is the most favourite of the two - the other being Shashi Tharoor. "The voting trend shows Mallikarjun Kharge is the favourite," he told reporters. (PTI)
Two senior Telangana Congress leaders-former PCC president Ponnal Lakshmaiah and former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha squatted on the steps of Gandhi Bhavan, state headquarters of the party protesting over a voter's name being missed in the AICC presidential elections voters' list.
The leaders alleged that one of the PCC delegates from Janagaon Assembly constituency who was issued a voter ID card was denied a vote in the presidential poll as his name did not figure in the electorate list.
'They say your name was struck down. You do not have right to vote. Is this not an insult? On what basis the name was removed (from the voters list)?' Raja Narasimha questioned. They are not giving any reasons and after issuing a card the name was removed, he further alleged. He said the Returning Officer should answer the question. Meanwhile, polling was underway in Telangana for the AICC presidential election at Gandhi Bhavan, the state Congress headquarters here, on Monday. (PTI)
Senior Congress leaders Harish Rawat, Meera Kumar, Salman Khurshid and Deepinder Singh Hooda cast their votes on Monday at the INC headquaters in New Delhi.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee who had left his father's party to join Trinamool Congress last year created a storm in a tea cup on Monday by urging his ex-party colleagues to vote for Malikarjun Kharge, in elections being held for the Congress President's post, through a surprise tweet.
The Indian National Congress of which Mukherjee's father and grandfather were members, is witnessing a contest for the post of party President with Kharge battling it out with his younger colleague Shashi Tharoor.
"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, tweeted Monday morning. The social media post created a storm of sorts with some Twitterati advising him not to interfere in the affairs of a party Mukherjee had left, while others speculated his future political plans.
Around 250 Congress delegates out of the total 407 in Gujarat have so far voted for the polls underway on Monday to elect the next All India Congress Committee (AICC) president, a party spokesperson said.
Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor and former state chief Amit Chavda were among those who exercised their franchise at the state party headquarters in Paldi area of the city.
There was a queue of voters in the morning. Around 250 delegates, including senior state Congress leaders, cast their votes till 1.30 pm, party spokesperson Alok Sharma said. (PTI)
"I am standing for change", Congress presidential poll candidate Shashi Tharoor said on Monday after casting his vote along with 264 other party delegates from the state.
Of the total 310 delegates in Kerala, 264 cast their vote till 1 PM in favour of either Tharoor or his rival Mallikarjun Kharge, who has been openly supported by the senior party leaders in the southern state. Polling will end at 4 PM.
Prior to casting his vote, Tharoor told reporters here that there is a need for a change in how the party functions and this poll was part of that. After casting his vote, he told reporters that he did not stand in the election for himself, but instead he stood for the Congress and the country.
"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. (PTI)
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and state Congress head Mohan Markam were among the party leaders who cast their votes on Monday for electing the next president of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Voting was underway from 10 am at the state Congress office 'Rajiv Bhawan' in Raipur and will conclude at 4 pm. Out of the total 307 Pradesh Congress Congress delegates eligible to cast their votes, 210 have so far exercised their franchise, Chhattisgarh party unit's communication wing head Sushil Anand Shukla said.
Besides CM Baghel, state Congress head Markam, the others who have voted so far include cabinet ministers Ravindra Choubey and Tamradhwaj Sahu, and MLAs Dhanendra Sahu and Satyanarayan Sharma, he said. (PTI)
Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is a candidate for the Congress' Presidential polls, for which voting is underway on Monday, greeted his opponent Shashi Tharoor with "best wishes", and said both of them were contesting to strengthen the party and to build a better nation. He even spoke to the Thiruvananthapuram MP earlier in the day.
A Member of Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, the 80-year old cast his vote for the party's presidential post at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office here, earlier today. (PTI)
As voting in the Congress presidential polls got underway on Monday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, once a frontrunner for the post, said his relationship with the Gandhi family will be the "same for life".
"Even after October 19, my relation with the Gandhi family will remain the same as it has been for the last 50 years, I can say this with certainty," he said. Gehlot was at the PCC office to cast his vote. Counting will take place on October 19.
"Vinoba Bhave had once said that his relationship between with Gita Mata was beyond reason. I have the same relationship with the Gandhi family and it will be the same for life," Gehlot told reporters. He was responding to questions on speculation around his relation with the Gandhi family in the wake of the presidential polls of the party. (PTI)
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra cast their votes to elect the new party president at the AICC office in Delhi. Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge are in the fray for the elections for the post of Congress president.