9,500 Congress delegates vote for 1st non-Gandhi President in 25 yrs. Waited for this day, says Sonia
On a day when about 9,500 Congress delegates voted to elect a non-Gandhi to lead the party after a gap of two-and-a-half decades, interim party president Sonia Gandhi said that she had been waiting for this moment for a “long time”.
It will be a 48-hour wait to know whether Mallikarjun Kharge, who is seen as the Gandhis’ unofficial nominee, or Shashi Tharoor, a member of G-23, a ginger group, gets to lead the party for the next five years.
A total of 87 delegates voted Monday at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in Delhi, while 50 delegates who are a part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra voted in Ballari.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Sonia said after she cast her vote for the Congress presidential elections, which is seeing more than one participant for the first time in 22 years.
While Sonia and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra cast vote at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi voted in Karnataka where he is leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the party headquarters | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint
Pictures showed Rahul waiting in line outside a container which was converted to a polling booth. The yatra, which began in September, had a break at Ballari. It will resume Tuesday and head to Andhra Pradesh.
Back in Delhi, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram was the first voter, coming in soon after polling began at 10am. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also voted in Delhi. Other senior leaders who cast ballots in Delhi include Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Meira Kumar.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh arrives at AICC head office in Delhi on Monday | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint
The two candidates, Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, voted at their state headquarters in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, respectively. Before voting, the two had a telephonic conversation and wished each other luck.
The campaign in the run-up to elections, however, saw some hiccups with Tharoor claiming that senior leaders were not coming out in support of him. Later, the two candidates maintained that the election is an intra-party one and that they will continue to work for the party irrespective of who wins.
‘96% voter turnout’
Speaking to the press after polls closed, Congress’ Election Authority (CEA) chairman Madhusudan Mistry informed that there was approximately 96 per cent voter turnout as per provisional numbers.
Mistry said that there were a total of 9,915 delegates who were registered to vote. Of them, about 9,500 delegates voted.
Regarding the counting process, Mistry said that there will be no way to determine how many votes a candidate has received from each state.
“The first ballot box will be opened and its contents will be emptied onto a cloth. Thereafter, the second ballot box will be opened and the content of that will be emptied over the contents of the first box. The same will happen with the 3rd box, 4th box and so on for 36 times. This is being done to ensure that the secrecy of the ballot is maintained,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
