Congress Presidential poll sees 96% turnout from delegates

Around 9,500 or 96 per cent of 9,915 eligible Congress leaders and workers on Monday cast their vote to the elect a non-Gandhi as party chief for the first time in 22 years, even as the scales were tilted heavily towards veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge against his younger rival Shashi Tharoor.

Among those who voted at various parts of the country included party chief Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and the two candidates among others.

“As per preliminary assessment, 9,497 out of 9,915 PCC delegates who are eligible to vote in the election cast their vote, accounting for 95.78 per cent of the total votes,” Congress’ Central Election Authority Chairperson Madhusudan Mistry told a press conference after the conclusion of voting.

The counting of votes will be held on Wednesday at the AICC headquarters.

There was no adverse incident during Congress presidential polls, Mistry said, adding he has not received any complaints.

Sonia along with Priyanka came to the AICC headquarters to vote. As she moved into the polling booth, Sonia told reporters, "I have been waiting for a long time for this day."

While former Finance Minister P Chidambaram was the first vote in AICC headquarters, others who voted there included Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh and senior leaders Janardhan Dwivedi and Salman Khurshid.

Kharge voted in Bengaluru while Tharoor voted in Thiruvananthapuram. Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal also voted in Thiruvananthapuram.

Both the candidates wished each other the best. Tharoor telephoned Kharge in the morning to "reaffirm my respect for him and our shared devotion to the success of Congress." Kharge tweeted, "my best wishes to Shashi Tharoor. Spoke to him earlier today, both of us are contesting to strengthen Congress to build a stronger and better nation for the future generations."

After the voting, Tharoor tweeted, "My thanks to all the Congress colleagues, workers, delegates across the country who had the courage to participate, to campaign, to dream and to vote today -- whatever the result of this election, it is a victory for you!"

Senior leader Anand Sharma, who was among the 87 leaders who cast their votes at the AICC headquarters said it was a good start and expressed hope that there will be an election to the Congress Working Committee.

Asked about elections to the CWC, Mistry said AICC members will be elected and the new president will take a call on plenary session and next president will take a call on the election of CWC and CEA Members.

He said the party had started its exercise for presidential polls two years ago and it gathered momentum in the last six months.

"The entire process was completed in a democratic manner. Congress once again proven that there is an internal democracy within the party. Other political parties should also take lessons from this," he said.

He emphasised the election was conducted through a secret ballot. Fifty people, including Rahul, voted at the polling booth set up at the Bharat Jodo Yatra camp in Karnataka's Bellary.