96% voting in Congress presidential poll

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, October 17

More than 9,500 Congress delegates voted on Monday in a direct contest between veteran Mallikarjun Kharge and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor to elect the 18th party president in post-Independence India and the first non-Gandhi in 24 years.

Sitaram Kesri was the last leader outside of the Gandhi family to helm the affairs of the Congress. He was unceremoniously ousted by a Congress Working Committee resolution in 1998. The same resolution invited Sonia Gandhi to accept the party’s leadership. “I had been waiting for this for long,” said Sonia (75) after casting her vote in Delhi.

Accompanied by daughter Priyanka Vadra, Sonia wore a jubilant look as she prepared to pass the mantle after writing the history of being the longest-serving Congress chief in the party’s 137-year run. Once the results of today’s elections are announced on October 19 with Kharge being the clear favourite, Sonia would have held the party’s reins for a long 22 years.

Between them, the Nehru-Gandhi family — former PMs Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, incumbent chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul — have presided over the Congress for 39 years out of the 75 years of India’s Independence.

That explains the importance of today’s exercise, which will install a non-Gandhi in the Congress on Wednesday. The election was also the first in 22 years with Sonia Gandhi trouncing late Jitendra Prasad to win the post in 2000.

Chairman of the party’s central election authority, Madhusudan Mistry, today announced a voter turnout of nearly 96 per cent and expressed satisfaction that the election was “peaceful and free of any untoward events”. He said ballot boxes had begun arriving at the AICC headquarters and the results would be announced on October 19, after a strenuous counting exercise which will involve ballot reshuffling “36 times over”. He said 9,497 PCC delegates of the total 9,915 voted at 65 booths in party units across India and one at the AICC headquarters.

Ex-PM Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik and CWC members also cast their votes at AICC headquarters.

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