Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of the Congress Central Election Authority, slammed senior leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday for claiming irregularities in the recently held party presidential elections.
Tharoor suffered a crushing defeat against Gandhi-family loyalist Mallikarjun Kharge. Madhusudan Mistry has called out Shashi Tharoor for being allegedly two-faced, claiming that Tharoor had one face before the media and another before Mistry. Mistry said that while Tharoor praised the election process in front of him, he criticised it in the media.
“Despite the fact that we accommodated your request, you went to the media alleging that the Central Election Authority was conspiring against you,” Mistry said. “I’m sorry to say that you had one face in front of me that communicated that you’re satisfied with all of our answers and another face in the media that made all of these allegations against us,” he added.
On Wednesday, Tharoor’s campaign team wrote to the party’s chief election authority, citing “extremely serious irregularities” in the undertaking of the election in Uttar Pradesh.
Tharoor’s campaign team had raised “serious issues” in the conduct of the election in Punjab and Telangana, in addition to demanding that all votes from Uttar Pradesh be declared invalid.
According to Tharoor’s chief election agent Salman Soz, in a letter to Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, the facts are “damning” and the election process in Uttar Pradesh is “devoid of credibility and integrity.”
Election agent to Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor writes letter to Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudhan Mistry, alleging “extremely serious irregularities in conduct of election in UP” & demands “that all votes from UP be deemed invalid”. pic.twitter.com/ZEAZVsJAVF
— ANI (@ANI) October 19, 2022
He stated that Tharoor’s team is forced to report “disturbing facts” after a thorough discussion with polling agents.
Notably, Shashi Tharoor lost the party’s presidential election but gained more votes than any of the losing candidates in the party’s presidential elections in 2000 and 1997.
On Wednesday, Congress’ central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry announced that of the 9,385 votes cast in the Congress president election, veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge received 7,897 votes, Tharoor received 1,072 votes, and 416 votes were declared invalid. Tharoor received approximately 12% of all valid votes cast.
Soon after the results were announced, Tharoor congratulated Mallikarjun Kharge, saying the “democratic contest” had galvanized vibrancy at all levels and prompted a healthy and constructive discussion on change, which will benefit the party in the future.
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. pic.twitter.com/NistXfQGN1
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 19, 2022
In 2000, Congress leader Jitendra Prasada ran against Sonia Gandhi in the last election. Sonia Gandhi inflicted a crushing defeat over Jitendra Prasada, who received 7,448 votes (98.76% of valid votes), while Prasada received only 94 votes which amount to 1.24 percent of the valid votes.
For the past two decades, Sonia Gandhi has served as President of the Congress. In fact, with the exception of brief periods between 1992 and 1998 when PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri were in charge, the Nehru-Gandhi family has ruled the party since 1978. Sitaram Kesri was the last non-Gandhi family leader to hold the Congress party’s top leadership position, and his exit was one of the most contentious.
