Indian Congress Slams Tharoor Over Allegations of Irregularities in Party Chief Election

Senior Congress Party member Mallikarjun Kharga defeated Shashi Tharoor in the recently held party leadership vote. Kharge secured 7,897 votes to Tharoor’s 1,072.

Indian National Congress’ election chief Madhusudan Mistry hit out at Shashi Tharoor on Thursday over his allegations of irregularities in the recently held party leadership election.

Lashing out at Tharoor, Mistry argued that, “We accommodated your request and despite that you went to media alleging Central Election Authority was conspiring against you.”

“I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you’re satisfied with all our answers and different face in the media which made all these allegations against us,” he added.

The reaction from Mistry came a day after Tharoor’s electoral agent Salman Soz wrote a letter to him alleging “extremely serious irregularities” in the polls.

The letter alleged the use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes, the presence of unauthorized persons in polling booths, malpractices during voting and the absence of polling sheets.

However, the 66-year-old senior parliamentarian later regretted that the letter was leaked, saying “let’s move on.”

Prior to the voting, Tharoor claimed that he faced bias during the election campaign, alleging an “uneven playing field,” while some party leaders were being “forced to back Mallikarjun Kharge.”

Tharoor also pointed out that senior Congress state politicians remained “unavailable” whenever he visited any state, whereas his rival Kharge received preferential treatment.