'One face before us, different one before media': Congress slams Tharoor on his charge of irregularities in prez poll

The Congress today slammed party presidential poll candidate and senior leader Shashi Tharoor over his charge of internal election being rigged. Tharoor was defeated by his party colleague Mallikarjun Kharge who became the first non-Gandhi party chief in over 24 years on Wednesday. 

As the votes were counted, Tharoor’s team wrote to Chairman of the Congress Party's Central Election Authority Madhusudan Mistry complaining about “extremely serious irregularities”.

In the four-page letter to Madhusudan Mistry, who oversaw the election, Tharoor’s election agent Salman Soz alleged “use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes”, “presence of unofficial persons in polling booths”, “voting malpractice”, “no polling summary sheet”. “As you can see, the facts are damning and the election process in UP is devoid of credibility and integrity,” he wrote. 

Tharoor's team also alleged “unethical process” was followed in distributing delegate cards in Punjab and also flagged the presence of PCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring inside the polling booth repeatedly and “allowing bogus voting”.

Setting aside apprehensions of unfairness and absence of a level playing field in the election after Tharoor's team filed the complaint, expressing concern over "irregularities" in polls in Uttar Pradesh, Mistry said the complaint was "of a general nature and had no basis."

Noting that the complaint should not have been made public, Mistry said the UP poll returning officer of the party had briefed the agents of Tharoor and they were satisfied.

"I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you're satisfied with all our answers and different face in the media which made all these allegations against us. We accommodated your request and despite that you went to media alleging Central Election Authority was conspiring against you," Mistry said in his reply.

To put the record the straight, Mistry said he must state that the party's poll body showed Tharoor's team the list of all the voters two days before the candidate filed their nomination.

"Subsequently, we gave you the list of all the voters along with their telephone numbers. You alleged in the media that you did not receive phone numbers for 3,000 voters despite the fact that you and Mr. Kharge both received approximately 9,400 phone numbers which were available with us.

"You alleged that we were putting '1' for voting because Mr. Kharge had '1' against his name as serial number which may indicate as if someone is suggesting to vote for serial number-1. We accommodated your request and changed it to tick-mark...And despite that you went to the media alleging that Central Election Authority was conspiring against you," Mistry said.

A Dalit from Karnataka, 80-year-old Kharge trounced his 66-year-old rival, Shashi Tharoor, in a historic election seeking to steer the beleaguered party out of its current crisis. He bagged over 84 percent of the votes in the presidential election. He will formally take over on October 26.

Kharge polled 7897 Pradesh Congress Committee delegate votes out of 9385, while Tharoor bagged 1072, Chairman of the Congress Party's Central Election Authority Madhusudan Mistry said, adding 416 votes were invalid.

Conceding defeat, Tharoor congratulated Kharge and also thanked outgoing president Sonia Gandhi for her leadership, hoping she would continue to guide the party.Later, Tharoor met Kharge at his residence and promised to work together for the revival of the party.

Asserting that he was never a candidate of dissent, but for change, Tharoor said this election has energised the party to take on the challenge posed by the BJP and exuded confidence that the party will display its strength.