Congress President Poll Results 2022, Shashi Tharoor, Mallikarjun Kharge
Mallikarjun Kharge, was elected president of the Congress party, bagging 7,897 votes (84.14%) as against Shashi Tharoor polling 1,072 votes (11.42%). Following the results, when senior leader Rahul Gandhi was asked as to what his role would now be in the Congress party, he said, “…my role, of course I cannot comment on Congress president’s role… that is for Mr Kharge to comment on. I am very clear as far as my role is concerned. The Congress president will decide my role and how I am to be deployed”. Mallikarjun Kharge will now take charge as the new president on October 26th 2022.
The first non-Gandhi to occupy Congress presidency in two-and-a-half decades, Mallikarjun Kharge has many challenges awaiting him. The biggest challenge before Kharge is to transform the party to reconnect with the people and start winning elections again. Also, the new Congress president has the tricky task of asserting his independence so that he is not viewed as a substitute of the Gandhis.
On counting day, a letter from the Shashi Tharoor team alleging irregularities and malpractices in Uttar Pradesh in the conduct of the election for Congress president emerged in public, it said the facts provided were ‘Damning’ and the poll process in UP was “devoid of credibility and integrity”. The letter also alleged use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes, voting malpractice, presence of unofficial persons in polling booths and presence in Lucknow of AICC secretaries in charge of UP. However, Madhusudan Mistry, head of the election authority, denied all charges as baseless and said he will give a “point-by-point” reply to Tharoor’s chief election agent, Salman Anees Soz.
In the letter to Mistry, Soz had alleged “extremely serious irregularities” in conduct of the election in UP and demanded that votes from the state be deemed invalid. Mistry said there was “no basis” in what is written in the letter and argued that making the letter public was not right.
