The Congress Party is all set to elect its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years between senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, once the results of the presidential elections are declared on today.
Over 9,500 votes were cast in a secret ballot to choose between the two candidates, with Kharge pitched as the favourite due to his proximity to the Gandhi family and a large number of leaders backing him. But, Tharoor has promised change and large-scale reforms within the party if he wins the elections, the sixth in the 137-year history of the Congress. The chosen candidate will succeed interim party president Sonia Gandhi.
The counting of votes will begin at 10 am at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi. All sealed ballot boxes from 68 polling booths across the country have been brought together and kept in a “strong room” at the party office. The boxes will be opened before the candidates’ agents and ballot papers will be mixed repeatedly.
The Congress claims to be the only party with an internal democratic set-up to choose its president. It also has a central election authority, whose chairperson Madhusudan Mistry expressed satisfaction with the polling process calling it “free, fair and transparent”. He also said it was a secret ballot and no one will know who voted for whom.