Voting will be held by secret ballot in each state capital on October 17.
Lucknow:
On the eve of voting to elect a new Congress president, Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said he is batting on a track with “unequal bounce” and does not want to “tamper with the pitch”.
Asked to comment on the fairness of the elections, Mr. Tharoor told PTI in an interview, “I had said there is an uneven playing field, but that doesn’t mean (Madhusudan) Mistryji is unfair. I think That he is very fair, and it is possible to get proper results from his system. However, in the party we see that the work done by some leaders is not fair enough.” “I am batting on uneven bouncy pitch but I have to bat on that. I don’t want any pitch to be tampered with,” he said.
The 66-year-old Congress leader also said that in 12-13 states he had gone to seek votes, Madhya Pradesh showed “fairness”. However, when asked whether he has been treated fairly in Uttar Pradesh, he refrained from replying.
“Mistryji has addressed this through secret ballot for the elections,” Tharoor said.
Asked what his plans are for Uttar Pradesh, which has sent 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, Mr. Tharoor said, “We will definitely have to rejuvenate the party everywhere, including in UP.” He said the party got only three per cent votes in the last few elections in the state.
Asked to compare the election of the Congress President’s post to that of the UN Secretary General, which he had contested, Mr Tharoor said, “He was 15 voters and it was not difficult to approach him as there were 15 capitals, 15 foreign ministers and 15 foreign ministers. Governments. Here we are talking about 9,000 (voters).” In 2006, Shashi Tharoor was India’s official candidate for the post of General Secretary and finished second in the race.
Responding to a question that he addressed his voters in the UP Congress office in Hindi, Mr. Tharoor said, “My Hindi was always like this. The problem was that I don’t use it inside Parliament because I am a perfectionist when It comes down to the language.” “I know there are many drawbacks, especially when it comes to gender, because neither in Malayalam nor in English, there is a gender,” he said.
He said, “I don’t understand why a table is masculine and a flower is feminine. Since every word spoken is recorded inside Parliament, I don’t use Hindi. But I give sound bytes outside Parliament. Am.”
The Thiruvananthapuram MP has been pitted against veteran Congressman Mallikarjun Kharge for the October 17 election to the party’s highest post. The election results will be declared on October 19.
Voting will be held by secret ballot in each state capital on October 17. Around 9,300 representatives are eligible to vote, including 1,250 from Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier in the day, Mr Tharoor took a veiled dig at the Kharge camp, saying some allies were indulging in “netagiri” and telling party workers that they knew whom Sonia Gandhi wanted to elect.
He urged Congress representatives to listen to their hearts during the voting, saying if anyone has any “fears or doubts”, the party has made it clear that it will be a secret ballot.
“I also asked Sonia Gandhi how she sees the elections. She said it is very good for the party and you fight with all courage and we will be neutral. She had said that there will be no official candidate from her side. ,” Mr Tharoor told reporters.
Mr. Tharoor emphasized on “decentralization” in the organization so that all decisions are not taken in Delhi. He said there should be “ready access” to the party president.