Dubbed the “TN Seshan of Congress” by many party colleagues, AICC Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry presided over the sixth elections in the party’s history, while deftly navigating through an uneven playing field and constant media glare. elected its chief. Considered a confidant of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Mistry has often been the party’s go-to person for tough assignments. Narendra Modi From Vadodara in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The election contest between senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor took place 22 years after Sonia Gandhi’s crushing defeat to Jitendra Prasad. The election which was won by Kharge with Tharoor garnering 7,897 votes and the latter 1,072 votes, proved to be a long-running affair and a tough challenge for Mistry. Tharoor, who raised the issue of uneven playing field, described Mistry as “fair” and said there were “flaws” in the party’s system as no such elections were held in 22 years.
Mistry’s fairness and honesty are appreciated by many in the party. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh compared Mistry to the former chief election commissioner, saying, “Mistry is G TN Seshan whose hair falls out. He is demanding strict, honest and free, fair and transparent elections.” Being strict and non-partisan.
“I had to resign from the three spokespersons following their instructions so that they could campaign for a candidate,” Ramesh told PTI. He said Mistry set high standards of non-partisanship and in fact any complaint on the election process is completely “false and baseless”.
Mistry’s political journey has been interesting and has seen many ups and downs. He was part of Shankarsinh Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP). He became a member of the Indian National Congress when the RJP merged with it. In 2001, Mistry was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha on a Congress ticket in the by-election from Sabarkantha. He was later re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Sabarkantha in 2004, and served as a member of several parliamentary committees.
He lost to Mahendrasinh Chauhan of BJP from the same constituency in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Mistry was selected for the daunting task of contesting Modi from Vadodara in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but lost by a huge margin.
In 2014, he was nominated for Rajya Sabha by the Congress party. Mistry has also held several organizational positions in the AICC, including the general secretary in-charge of politically important Uttar Pradesh. Although he has fought a number of important political battles, observers consider the AICC’s challenge to hold a presidential election 22 years after the party’s last contest as the toughest.
Though allegations of an uneven playing field by the Tharoor camp posed a challenge, Mistry carried out the election with his shrewdness and both the candidates accepted the result and resolved to move on. Careful choice of words, being concise and not getting into verbal sparring while speaking to the media has been his strength, which has helped him work for the Congress.
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