The Congress party is all set to get a non-Gandhi president after 24 years with Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge facing an electoral contest on Monday after weeks-long vigorous campaigning across the country. The election will be held through secret ballots, and over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates will cast their votes at the AICC headquarters in Delhi and 65 other polling booths set up in various states.
This is the sixth time election to the top Congress post is being held in the party's 137-year history. Results will be announced on October 19.
Party's interim president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are likely to cast their votes at the AICC headquarters while Rahul Gandhi, along with 40 other Bharat Jodo Yatris, will vote at a campsite in Karnataka's Sanganakallu.
The voters have been instructed to put a tick mark in the box in front of the candidate whom they wish to vote for and putting any other symbol or writing a number would make the vote invalid.
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Though the party high command has maintained that there is no “official candidate” in the fray, Kharge is being seen as the firm favourite for the post because of his perceived proximity to the Gandhi family.
Tharoor, who promises to bring reforms in the party, has repeatedly alleged an uneven playfield in the election and that he has been facing a “differential treatment” from the top leaders. The Thiruvananthapuram MP lamented that several PCC chiefs and senior leaders were not available for a meeting with him during his visits to their respective states, but they warmed up to Kharge when he visited them seeking support.
Tharoor has also rued that several senior leaders are publicly campaigning for Kharge, violating guidelines of the election authority.
Kharge, on his part, has highlighted his experience, coming up the organizational ranks over decades and his ability to take everyone along.
Both the leaders have emphasised that the Gandhis hold a special place in the party with Kharge saying that he would seek their "guidance" and "suggestions", and Tharoor asserting that no Congress president can function keeping a distance from the Gandhi family as their DNA runs in the party's blood.
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