Over 9,000 Congress delegates voted on Monday to elect the new president of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) with Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor in the fray and the former being widely seen as the 'front runner' due to the backing of the AICC establishment. The result will be out on Wednesday evening after counting of votes.
After the completion of voting at the polling booths set up at the AICC office and headquarters of the Pradesh Congress Committees, Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry announced at a press conference that over "95%" votes were cast.
"Of the total 9,915 party delegates, 9,497 voted," Mistry said, adding that sealed ballot boxes would be brought to Delhi for counting. At the AICC booth, 87 delegates, including outgoing chief Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh exercised their franchise. He said the 50 delegates among the 'Bharat Yatris', including Rahul Gandhi, voted in Karnataka (at a make-shift polling booth created in a portable container).
Many Congress leaders cited the election process and the atmospherics to project the Congress as a "truly democratic party" and asked when other political parties will hold such elections to choose their respective leader. "I have been waiting for this moment for a long time," said Sonia Gandhi when she, accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Vadra, came to the AICC to cast their vote in the first Congress presidential election in 22 years.
"It's a moment of pride for the entire Congress party as we're in a democratic process to elect the party president. It's only the Congress that can elect its party president. We're demonstrating real democracy," said KC Venugopal, AICC general secretary (organisation).
Terming the election "historic" and "free and fair", party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said "the Congress is the only political party" that elects its president through a democratic election.
Soon after the voting started, candidates Kharge and Tharoor tweeted to advertise that they had a friendly telephonic chant before setting out for voting. While Kharge said he would implement the Udaipur Declaration if elected, Tharoor said his contest was meant to strengthen Congress and his candidature represented change. Tharoor said Priyanka Vadra had telephoned him in the morning and that she told him the election for the top post was good for Congress.
