New Delhi: Veteran Karnataka leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday defeated his rival Shashi Tharoor to become the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years, and the first Scheduled Caste chief of the grand old organization in four decades.
Kharge polled 7897 of the 9385 votes cast while Tharoor garnered a meagre 1072. Sources said 416 votes were invalid.
Chairman of the Congress Election Authority Madhusudan Mistry officially announced Kharge elected, with the victory of the 80-year old party warhorse, a former nine term state MLA and a three-term MP (twice Lok Sabha and currently Rajya Sabha) being celebrated with festive fervour amid the beating of drums at AICC headquarters.
Humbled by the loss, Tharoor conceded defeat and pledged to work with the new President to take the party forward.
In Andhra Pradesh today, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said his future role would be decided by the Congress chief, who is the supreme authority in the party.
Kharge was always tipped to win, with the election tilted in his favour from day one, as evidenced in the list of proposers that included all Gandhi family loyalists even though party chief Sonia Gandhi made it clear that there was no official candidate.
Tharoor acknowledged defeat today, moments after his poll agent Salman Soz threatened “suitable action’ if Mistry did not agree to the team’s demand of declaring all votes polled in Uttar Pradesh “invalid”, amid allegations of voter fraud.
As the results poured in, team Tharoor retreated and reconciled to defeat promising cooperation to Kharge.
The importance of Kharge’s election is multifold.
He is the first non-Gandhi to head the Congress in 24 years, after Sitaram Kesri was unceremoniously ousted in 1988 through a Congress Working Committee resolution that invited Sonia Gandhi to become the party chief.
Sonia had become a primary member of the Congress only a year ago at the AICC Kolkata plenary in 1997.
Kharge’s elevation is strategic. He is a tall SC leader, a man who rose from humble beginnings and entered politics in 1972.
Also, he is known in party circles to be a Gandhi yes man and is not expected to rock the boat for the first family, having already said that he would seek the counsel of Gandhis and “there was no shame in doing so.”
Kharge is also the only Congress chief who has been leader of opposition in a state assembly (Karnataka); leader of the party in Lok Sabha and who is now the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha.
The veteran, however, resigned as RS leader of opposition after filing his papers for the party president’s election, in deference to the Congress’ ‘one person, one post’ rule formalised at the Udaipur Chitan Shivir in May.
This was the first election for the post of Congress president in 22 years and only the fifth major contest in the party’s 137 year history.
In 2000 Sonia Gandhi had trounced Jitendra Prasad garnering 7448 votes against Prasad’s 96.