Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge addresses his first press conference after being declared the winner of the Congress presidential elections on Wednesday in New Delhi. (Express/Tashi Tobgyal) Congress President Poll Results 2022 Live Updates, Shashi Tharoor, Mallikarjun Kharge: Addressing his first press conference after being elected as the next Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said, “we need to fight against a conspiracy to kill democracy.” Kharge said no one in the party is big or small and he will work as a true Congress soldier to strengthen the organisation. He added that for him every Congress worker is equal and all have to work together to fight the fascists forces threatening democracy and the Constitution. No one is big or small and all have to work together as karyakartas to strengthen the Congress, he said.
Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited party chief-elect Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi and congratulated him. While Kharge received 7,897 of the total 9,385 votes, his opponent, Shashi Tharoor, trailed behind with 1,072 votes. Tharoor congratulated Kharge and thanked the delegates who supported him. “It is a great honour and a huge responsibility to be President of the Indian National Congress and I wish Mallikarjun Kharge all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues, and to carry the hopes and aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India,” he said.
Earlier today, party leader Rahul Gandhi, in what appeared to be a slip of tongue, responded to a question referring to Kharge as the new Congress president. During a press conference in Andhra Pradesh, when a reporter asked about his new role in the party, Gandhi replied, “I can’t comment on Congress President’s role, that’s for Kharge ji (party’s Presidential candidate) to comment on. The President will decide what my role is…”
Congress party presidential candidates Shashi Tharoor in Lucknow and Mallikarjun Kharge in Bellary (PTI, Twitter)
The elections for the president of the Indian National Congress should have been a routine affair, given the long history of internal democracy in the party. However, we cannot complain that so much is being made of it this time. Of course, after over two decades, we will not see a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family occupy the highest office of the party although that was not the intent or aspiration of hundreds of party rank and file. Yet, our leadership has insisted that this is how it must be and we will make the most of it.
Even as we celebrate the initial moments of the tenure of the new president, we cannot stop wondering if many outsiders and the media at large that have shown great interest in the process are genuinely motivated by a commitment to greater democracy in political parties or simply a cynical interest in what the Congress party chooses to do or not do. We seldom see a similar interest shown in the proceedings of other parties, big and small. If the burden of democracy is to be carried by the Indian National Congress, so be it. If higher standards and expectations are meant for our party alone, so be it. Salman Khurshid writes
Hours after veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge swept the Congress presidential election beating Shashi Tharoor in a tightly fought contest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday extended his wishes to Kharge for his new responsibility as the Congress president.
“My best wishes to Shri Mallikarjun Kharge Ji for his new responsibility as President of @INCIndia. May he have a fruitful tenure ahead. @kharge,” Modi tweeted. Read more
The high-decibel election for the Congress presidency is over. And now the focus will now be back on Rajasthan. New Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the senior leadership will have to take a call on whether to let Ashok Gehlot continue as Chief Minister, given the huge support he has of the MLAs, or force a regime change and bring in Sachin Pilot.
Sources in the party said the Rajasthan issue was “still open” and argued that a decision had been deferred till the party presidential elections. One of the first tasks before Kharge will be to settle the dispute in the state unit. Read more
Mallikarjun Kharge was elected Congress president on Wednesday, defeating the party’s Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a hard-fought contest for leadership but the euphoria in the party — its proclamations of inner-party democracy and digs at the opponents — will soon give way to the reality of the challenges that lie ahead for the 80-year-old veteran leader.
Barring once in 2019, Kharge has not lost any election, earning him the Kannada sobriquet “solillada sardara (a leader without defeat)”. His victory was expected, given the support he had from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) establishment. The leadership sinking their differences had joined forces to ensure continuity. Disruption, they felt, would be disastrous. Read more
BJP leader Rajyavardhan Rathore on Wednesday called newly elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge a "rubber stamp" and alleged that the party's internal polls to its chief were a "fraud". Reacting to allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Jaipur Rural MP said when the party cannot conduct internal polls between two people properly, then "how can it deal with elections at the national level".
Kharge won the polls for the post of the Congress president, the results of which were announced on Wednesday. He was pitted against party leader Shashi Tharoor. "A strong opposition is required for a strong democracy. After a long period of time, the Congress party is looking away from one family but still it has searched a rubber stamp. Their internal election is just a fraud and drama," he said. (PTI)
PM Narendra Modi wished Mallikarjun Kharge upon winning the Congress presidential polls, for which the results were declared on Wednesday. Modi tweeted, "My best wishes to Shri Mallikarjun Kharge Ji for his new responsibility as President of @INCIndia. May he have a fruitful tenure ahead."
With Mallikarjun Kharge sweeping the party’s presidential elections, party leaders from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah congratulated the veteran functionary as he became the first non-Gandhi president in more than two decades.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor who sprang a surprise by polling more than 1,000 votes in the elections was among the first people to congratulate Kharge. “It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of @INCIndia & I wish @Kharge ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues,& to carry the hopes & aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India.” Read more
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said, "We (Congress) are united to stand up against BJP."
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Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who lost to Mallikarjun Kharge in the party presidential elections, on Wednesday said, "I didn't stand for dissent, I stood for change."
Addressing a press conference after the results for the Congress presidential elections were declared, nominee Shashi Tharoor, who secured 1072 votes, said that Kharge's win is Congress party's win.
Congress party-president elect Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said, "need to fight against conspiracy to kill democracy." He added that the party elections strengethend the democracy in the country.
Addressing his first press conference after being declared the Congress party's next president, Mallikarjun Kharge said that the party had solidigied democracy in India. "Democracy is in danger," Kharge said.
Hours after Mallikarjun Kharge was officially declared as the next president of the Congress, he said, "Shashi Tharoor and I will work together." He also congratulated Tharoor for contesting in the election.
Karnataka Congress Wednesday celebrated the victory of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as the president of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). While congratulatory messages came in from across party lines, many of them hoped the party would flourish under Kharge’s leadership.
At the state Congress office, the celebrations were led by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee’s president D K Shivakumar. “My heartiest congratulations to the newly elected Congress Party President, Sri @Kharge. With his vast experience as a leader, I am sure he will add value and take the party to newer heights. A proud moment for us Kannadigas as Sri Kharge is quite attached to his grassroots,” Shivakumar said in a tweet.
Mallikarjun Kharge, predictably, has been elected president of the Congress party. He had preferred a consensus instead of a contest, but Shashi Tharoor wouldn’t relent. In any case, the contest has done a wealth of good to the party, and in general to political discourse in India.
Although the charge that Kharge was the “official” nominee of the Nehru-Gandhi family was converted into cussedness by the Tharoor camp, the contest made two opposite worldviews face each other. Tharoor represented an urban, technocratic, anglophone world that was impatient for change. Kharge symbolised old-world loyalties, rooted liberalism and an uncommon pragmatism that saw any and all change as only gradual and incremental. Sugata Srinivasaraju writes
Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday expressed confidence that new Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will renew the consultative process which existed in the party earlier. Talking to PTI, senior Congress leader Chavan congratulated Kharge for winning a decisive mandate.
"I hope Kharge will use his electoral and administrative experience in strengthening the Congress and take it to new heights. I am confident that he will renew the consultative process that existed in the party earlier," Chavan said. (PTI)
Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday visited party chief-elect Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi, after the latter swept the party’s high-stakes presidential polls on Wednesday, paving the way for him to become the Congress’ first non-Gandhi president in over two decades. (Source: AICC)
Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday visited party chief-elect Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi, just a few hours after he was officially declared as the winner for the high-stakes party presidential elections. Sonia Gandhi was accompanied by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during their visit, PTI reported.