Congress Presidential Elections: ‘Proxy’ Kharge or ‘Parivartan Candidate’ Tharoor? All eyes on Wednesday’s results

Voting for the Congress’s presidential election ended on Monday and the party’s 9,500 delegates across the country voted to choose between senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor as Sonia Gandhi’s successor. The voting was the first such exercise by the Grand Old Party to elect its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.

The new president will replace Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving Congress president, in power except for the two years between 1998 and 2017 and 2019. Rahul Gandhi took over. Sonia Gandhi became the interim president of the party after Rahul Gandhi resigned following the party’s electoral defeat in 2019.

In the face-off between Kharge and Tharoor, some senior leaders and party members have put forth their stand in favor of Kharge. The Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, known to have won the election by some Congress leaders and rival political parties, alleged that Kharge was a “proxy” for the Gandhi family. Meanwhile, Tharoor has established himself as a “candidate for change”.

In its 137-year history, the party has elected a new leader through elections six times. The last election for the post of Congress President was held in 2000 when Sonia Gandhi gave a crushing defeat to Jitendra Prasad.

Here are the top ten updates from today’s congressional presidential elections:

• Voting in the elections, seen by some as aimed at putting the party on the path of revival, began at 10 am at polling stations at AICC headquarters and PCC offices across the country.
• Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, casts his vote at the Karnataka Congress office in Bengaluru. The Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka said that Tharoor called him and wished him well and that is what he wished. He said that both were fighting internal elections in a friendly manner to strengthen the Congress to build a stronger and better nation for the future generations.
• In a tweet late in the evening, Kharge thanked all the representatives including Seva Dal volunteers, office-bearers and party workers for the smooth elections across the country. He also said, “I am grateful to all my colleagues for their support and cooperation throughout the campaign. All Congress workers will stand together and renew our efforts to build a strong Congress and a strong India.”
• Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor casts his vote in the capital of Kerala. He told the media that he was confident of victory even though the odds were stacked against him as politicians and establishment were with another candidate. “India needs a strong Congress. I fought elections not for my political future, but for Congress and India. I’m here as a viable alternative. I stand for change. Change in the way the party works,” he said.
• The 66-year-old ignited intense political speculation after posting a vague quote in Hindi saying, “We fight some battles only so that history can remember that the present was not silent.”
• “Spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge this morning to wish him well and reaffirm my respect for him and our shared devotion to the success of the Congress,” Tharoor said in a tweet. Tharoor had earlier alleged that he was fighting on “unequal grounds” as several senior Congress leaders were standing behind Kharge. However, both the candidates have said that Gandhi is neutral and there is no official candidate.
• Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring criticized rival parties for terming Mallikarjun Kharge a “proxy” candidate of the Gandhi family and said the “transparent” presidential election has robbed him of “dynastic” charges. “Since he has been robbed of the logic of dynastic politics with democratic and transparent election process in Congress, he has started saying so and so is the proxy candidate of Gandhi family,” he said.
• Former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Su Thirunavukarsar said the nationwide mood in the Congress president’s election is in favor of senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge and he is the favorite of the party’s voters. “The elections were held in a transparent manner across the country and Kharge seemed to be the clear choice of party representatives everywhere,” he was quoted as saying.
• Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee, who had left his father’s party to join the Trinamool Congress, also expressed support for Kharge. In a tweet, Mukherjee, who has been elected twice as Congress MP from Jangipur, said in a tweet, “@INCIndia urge every voter of the party to elect @Kharge ji, a very senior and experienced leader who served in the @INCIndia Parliamentary Assembly in the Lok Sabha. led the team.”
• Sonia Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came together and cast their vote at the AICC headquarters in Delhi. Sonia Gandhi said, “I have been waiting for this day for a long time.” Later, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also voted at the party headquarters.
• Meanwhile, senior leader Ambika Soni insisted that the Gandhi family cannot be ignored and the party workers’ attachment to them will continue. Soni said that he was instrumental in defeating the BJP’s ‘Shining India’ campaign in the formation of the UPA government and the victory of the Congress in the 2004 elections. Soni further said, ‘I have no role. I have served 52 years in Congress party. I want Sonia ji’s role to be our guide, friend, philosopher, MP, CLP…will remain the same.”
• Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik said that the Gandhi family has a history of more than 100 years and its members played a very important role in the freedom struggle which no one can ignore. “Even after gaining independence, he has contributed a lot in the making of modern India. When the time demanded, he also made supreme sacrifice, no one can forget the sacrifice of Indira ji, Rajiv ji and the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru in giving a vision for building a modern India.
• The president of the Congress’s Central Election Authority, Madhusudan Mistry, announced a total of 9,915 representatives of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), which form the electoral college, to choose the party chief in a secret ballot, with more than 9,500 elected to all PCC offices and in Delhi. Cast your vote at AICC Headquarters. , Mistry said the exercise started about two years ago and more than 9,900 delegates were selected from every block of the country for this election.
• The Congress also said that the elections were conducted without any adverse incident report. “The most satisfactory thing for us was that in all the states where polling stations were set up, there were no adverse incidents. This is a great achievement…the elections were held in an open process and peacefully.”
• The Congress has said that no one should have any apprehension about voting as it is a secret ballot and no one will know who voted for whom. Mistry also said that the entire polling was recorded on cameras.
• A total of 50 delegates, including Rahul Gandhi, who participated in the Bharat Jodi Yatra, cast their votes at the polling booth at the camp site near Ballari in Karnataka.
• The results of the election will be declared on October 19, when the ballot papers from all PCC offices will reach Delhi and the votes polled before the counting of votes will be clubbed.
• Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, once the front-runner for the party’s top post, said in Jaipur that his relationship with the Gandhi family would remain “same for life” even after October 19. He also said that there is no substitute for experience. level and suggested that young leaders should be patient as they will get a chance when the time comes.

(with inputs from agencies)

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