Congress President Polls live: ver 9,500 votes cast across the country earlier this week, will be counted from 10 am onwards at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.

Congress President Poll Results 2022 Live Updates, Shashi Tharoor, Mallikarjun Kharge: The Congress is set to get its first non-Gandhi president in over two decades on Wednesday, with party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor vying for the top post. Over 9,500 votes cast across the country earlier this week, will be counted from 10 am onwards at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi. The new president will replace interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who has been occupying the post ever since Rahul Gandhi stepped down after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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.

The high-stakes contest between the two veteran leaders 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. Of the 9,915 PCC delegates, 9,497 cast their votes across state capitals, including 87 at the AICC headquarters and 50 at the Yatra campsite, said Madhusudan Mistry, who is heading the party’s Central Election Authority (CEA).

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Congress President Poll Results 2022 Live Updates: Kharge vs Tharoor — new party chief to be declared today; counting to begin at 10 am. Follow this space for the latest updates

Congress party presidential candidates Shashi Tharoor in Lucknow and Mallikarjun Kharge in Bellary (PTI, Twitter)

96% turnout for election to top post: Congress

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.

As Congress votes to elect President, Shashi Tharoor says party’s future with workers who vote

As voting for the Congress presidential election is underway Monday, one of the candidates and party MP from Kerala Shashi Tharoor said the future of the Congress is in the hands of the party workers who will vote for the day’s electoral process.

After casting his vote at the party state committee office in Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor, 66, told the media the Congress workers would decide on the next leadership. This election would only benefit the Congress party, he added. “Like the Bharat Jodo Yatra, this presidential election was also meant to revitalise the party. New energy is required to fight the BJP as well as to face the next Lok Sabha elections. We are going to face a big challenge from BJP in the next elections. I hope this presidential election has served that purpose,” he said.

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First published on: 19-10-2022 at 07:51:35 am