Congress president election live updates: Stage set for Congress to announce new party president today

It is the sixth time in Congress' nearly 137-year-old history that an electoral contest is deciding who would take up the mantle of the party's president as successor to Sonia Gandhi.

Mistry has also assured that it was a secret ballot and no one would get to know who voted for whom.

Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry has expressed satisfaction with the party's presidential polls process, saying it was "free, fair and transparent".

The Congress has claimed that its internal democracy has no parallel in any other party and it is the only one to have a central election authority for organisational polls.

The sealed ballot boxes will be opened before the candidates' agents and the votes will be mixed repeatedly as they are added from various boxes. This is to ensure that neither candidate will be able to tell who voted for them and from which state.

The process of bringing all the ballot boxes from the 68 polling booths set up across the country by the party will be completed by Tuesday evening. The sealed boxes will be kept in a "strong room" at the party HQ till the time of counting.

The counting of votes will begin at 10am on Wednesday at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.

While Kharge is considered the firm favourite with his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and a large number of senior leaders backing him, Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change.