Congress Strong Rebuttal to Tharoor’s Charges of Irregularities in Presidential Poll

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Oct 20: Levelling a serious accusation against the defeated candidate in the Congress presidential elections, the party’s central election authority called Shashi Tharoor “double-faced” showing one face to the party machinery and quite the contrary to the media.

“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,” Madhusudan Mistry, who was the party’s election in-charge, said after Shashi Tharoor’s team alleged “damning evidence” of violations.

Mr Mistry had while announcing the results in favour of Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday had dismissed Tharoor’s allegations as “baseless” and had promised to give point-by-point rebuttal to his charges of gross irregularities in the elections process and not allowing him an even playing field.

In his reply to the allegations made by Tharoor’s election agent Salman Soz, Mr Mistry in a sharp pushback against his allegations of “extremely serious irregularities” in the internal polls, said “We accommodated your request… and despite that you went to the media alleging that the Central Election Authority was conspiring against you.”

Mr Mistry in his point-by-point rebuttal wrote, “You tried creating a mountain out of a mole(hill) by creating an impression that the entire exercise was unfair to your candidate.” Mr Mistry called Team Tharoor’s charge of voting malpractice “imaginary and baseless.” Mistry said that while Tharoor told him that he was satisfied with the authority’s answers to his questions on irregularities, he made different allegations while speaking to the media. “I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you are satisfied with all our answers and different face in the media which made all these allegations against us,” Mistry said.

Mr Tharoor is among the few “G-23” leaders still in the party two years after writing to Sonia Gandhi demanding long overdue reforms in the party and a clear and visible leadership. Since then, several senior leaders have quit the party, including Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal and many Congress leaders felt that the unusual harsh tone used in responding to Tharoor’s allegations, though Kharge’s victory was never in doubt, could push him and his supporters out of the party.

As the votes were counted on Wednesday, Salman Soz wrote to Mr Mistry flagging “disturbing facts in the election process” in Uttar Pradesh and demanding that votes in the state be cancelled. Mr Soz later said after assurances of a “fair inquiry”, the team had agreed that the vote-count must go on. Though Mr Tharoor regretted that a “strictly internal letter” was leaked and said, “let’s move on”, the Congress was blunt and unforgiving in its response.

Tharoor’s team had raised “serious issues” in the conduct of the election in Punjab and Telangana. They alleged “unethical process” was followed in distributing delegate cards in Punjab and also flagged the presence of PCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring inside the polling booth repeatedly and “allowing bogus voting.” Mistry refuted the charge, stating that no unauthorised person had entered the polling booth.

“We did not contest this election to accept business as usual. We are ready to fight for the integrity of this election. Winning or losing matters little given that both contestants are part of the same family,” the letter said.

“However, it matters greatly to our campaign, our volunteers and our supporters that we ensure that the Indian National Congress emerges stronger after this election,” Salman Soz further wrote.

Tharoor managed to poll 1,072 votes in the crucial polls, while his colleague and Congress president-elect Kharge bagged 7,897 votes in a resounding victory. 416 votes were declared invalid. Kharge is now all set to replace Sonia Gandhi to take over the reins of the grand old party.