Mallikarjun Kharge becomes first non-Gandhi Congress president since 1998, Shashi Tharoor concedes defeat

New Delhi: Mallikarjun Kharge has become the first non-Gandhi Congress president since 1998 as he defeated his rival Shashi Tharoor by a handsome margin on Wednesday, amid allegations of poll irregularities in Uttar Pradesh. Kharge received 7,897 votes whereas Tharoor got 1,072 votes.

Tharoor conceded defeat in a tweet.

"It is a great honor and a huge responsibility to be the President of Congress and I wish Kharge all the success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues and to carry the hopes and aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India," he tweeted.

In a letter dated October 18, Team Tharoor shot off a letter to the poll in-charge Madhusudan Mistry alleging "extremely serious irregularities" in Uttar Pradesh. The politician had demanded that the votes in UP be deemed invalid.

Salman Soz, Shashi Tharoor's election agent, wrote to Madhusudan Mistry that the election process in Uttar Pradesh was devoid of any credibility and integrity.

"We would like to underline that we have no evidence that Mallikarjun Kharge was aware of how his supporters were engaging in electoral malpractice in Uttar Pradesh. We are certain that if he was aware, he would never allow what happened in Uttar Pradesh," Soz said in his letter.

"He (Kharge) would not allow the tainting of an election that is so important for the Indian National Congress," Soz was quoted as saying in the letter.

Congress denied the charges.

Earlier this month, Tharoor alleged bias against him in the Congress ranks. He claimed several state unit chiefs didn't meet him when he went to seek votes for the Congress internal elections.

Tharoor had claimed there was no official Congress candidate and that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi adopted a neutral stance.

However, Kharge, a Gandhi loyalist, was considered the favourite to win the race as most of the so-called old guard of the Congress party openly supported his candidature. 

The last non-Gandhi Congress president was Sitaram Kesari who was forced to make way for Sonia Gandhi in 1998. 

In 2019, Rahul Gandhi assumed the moral responsibility for the general election debacle and stepped down from the post of Congress president. After weeks of deliberations, Sonia Gandhi was elected as the interim president until a full-time president is elected. However, no internal elections took place since then, allowing Gandhi to continue to spearhead the party.

The election of a full-time president was among the main demands of the G-23 dissent group. 

Tharoor was part of the group many of whose members quit the party over the years.