The Congress party is all set to get a new president today as the nation will witness a non-Gandhi occupying the top post after almost 24 years. The counting of votes for electing the new president began at 10 am on Wednesday in the headquarters of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi.
Ahead of the counting of votes, all the ballot papers will be mixed in an effort to not know how many ballots the two candidates — Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor — received from a particular state. The results are expected to be announced later in the day once the counting process is completed. All sealed ballot boxes from the 68 polling booths is set up across the country had been brought here by Tuesday evening and kept in a “strong room” at the party office.
As the counting begins in Congress presidential polls, Shashi Tharoor tweets, “@INCIndia presidential elections, a big “thank you” from me to who all who contributed to making this historic event a landmark in the evolution of our politics. #ThinkTomorrowThinkTharoor #ChooseChangeChooseCongress.”
Counting of votes began on Wednesday in the Congress presidential polls in which senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor faced-off for the post of AICC chief. The counting of the votes, which was scheduled to begin at 10 am at the AICC headquarters here, started around 10:20 am.
Salman Soz, a member of the Tharoor campaign team, responded when asked about reports of complaints regarding voting in Uttar Pradesh and some other states: “We have raised certain issues with the central election authority (CEA) and have been in communication with CEA chairman Madhusudan Mistry “before polling, on polling day, and after that.”
The counting members of Kharge are Pramod Tiwari, Kodikunil Suresh, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Nasir Hussain, Kuljit Singh Bagra and Gurdeep Singh Sappal. Karti Chidambaram, Atul Chaturvedi and Sumedh Gaikwal are among those who are counting agents of Tharoor.
Kharge is widely seen as the firm favourite because of his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and the support of many senior figures, while Tharoor has positioned himself as the change-seeking candidate.
Congress central election authority chairman Mistry has expressed satisfaction with the party’s presidential election process as being “free, fair, and transparent.” Additionally, he has also said it was a secret ballot and no one would get to know who voted for whom.
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