NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Wednesday finally elected its first non-Nehru-Gandhi president in 24 years when former leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge trounced Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor in the election which was held on October 17.
Before Kharge, the last non-Nehru-Gandhi to have become the Congress president was Sitaram Kesri, who was in the post from 1996 to 1998 before outgoing chief Sonia Gandhi replaced him in a “coup” sort of a situation.
It was for the fifth time in the history of the Congress since independence that an election was held for the party president’s post.
In 1938, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose won with a thumping margin defeating Pattabhi Sittaramayya even though the latter was considered as Mahatma Gandhi’s nominee.
Purushottam Das Tandon defeated JB Kripalani in 1950, Sitaram Kesri defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in 1997, and Sonia defeated Jitendra Prasada in 2000.
And, an election to the coveted post has been held after 22 years.
In the year 2000, Jitendra Prasada challenged Sonia Gandhi for the Congress president’s post. Sonia had already been the party chief for two years after taking over from Kesri.
Prasada became the first party leader to contest against a Nehru-Gandhi for the post after independence.
As Rajya Sabha member Kharge, 80, defeated 66-year-old Tharoor in a not-so-keenly contested election, there are some striking similarities with the November 2000 Sonia-Prasada election.
1. Margin of votes
Kharge, considered to be a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist, defeated Tharoor, a Lok Sabha member Thiruvanantpuram in Kerala, by a massive margin. He polled 7,897 votes to 1,072 by Tharoor.
Sonia had also trounced Prasada in a similar manner in the 2000 election. While Sonia polled 7,448 votes, Prasada could garner only 94 votes.
Comparatively, Tharoor fared much better than Prasada.
2. Slew of complaints
Tharoor constantly complained to the Congress central election authority (CEA) regarding irregularities in the polls.
He first demanded that the electoral roll ought to be made public. However, this demand was turned down by CEA chief Madhusudan Mistry.
Tharoor also objected to the open support pledged by Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot for Kharge.
In a video message on Twitter on October 13, Gehlot said, "Mr Kharge has a connection with party workers and leaders, and can hold dialogue with all opposition parties, which is needed today. I hope all delegates will help Mallikarjun Kharge succeed with a huge majority."
The very next day, Tharoor registered a protest. Talking to mediapersons in Bhopal, he said, “There are clear instructions that no party office-bearer, chief minister or pradesh Congress committee chief should support or campaign for any candidate."
The latest complaint from Tharoor’s end came in the form of a letter from his election manager Salman Soz to Mistry a day after voting. Soz is learnt to have alleged serious irregularities in the conduct of voting in three states, especially in Uttar Pradesh (UP), which has the maximum number of voters in the form of delegates.
In the complaint, Tharoor’s camp said facts presented from its UP team were “damning” and the poll process in the state was “devoid of credibility and integrity”. It alleged use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes, presence of unofficial people in the polling booths, voting malpractice and presence in Lucknow of All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries in-charge of UP, which was banned by Mistry. It demanded that the votes from UP be set aside.
Soz even tweeted about it and said: “In the light of complaints from our UP team yesterday, we wrote to @INCIndia’s CEA immediately, a standard practice. Subsequent discussions with the CEA have assured us of a fair inquiry. We have agreed for the counting to continue and our team looks forward to the results.”
However, Mistry rejected the allegations of the Tharoor camp. He called the contents “without basis” and of “general nature” lacking any specific violation.
Like Tharoor, Jitendra Prasada, a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member then, had also complained to the then CEA chairperson Ram Niwas Mirdha alleging irregularities in the November 2000 election.
He had questioned the impartiality of the election. He did not move court though, saying it was an internal matter of the Congress.
On the basis of complaints received from his supporters, he had raised doubts about the voters’ list. He alleged that the addresses of voters were missing in 17 major states.
He had apprised Mirdha about the alleged irregularities and said it was up to him to take action.
Prasada had alleged election-related malpractices such as manipulation and rigging of the list of PCC delegates, who comprise the electoral rolls. He had said the election was fixed behind his back. However, he also admitted that he would not have won even if there had been no irregularities.
3. Election a mere formality
Be it the Kharge versus Tharoor or Sonia versus Prasada contest, the winners in both the elections were an open secret. From the very start, all knew that Kharge and Sonia would win hands down. And the final outcome too was the same in both the cases.
A glaring example came to the fore from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the counting day even before the results were announced.
While addressing a press conference in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday in the midst of his ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul was asked what the new president will do while he remained the face of the party. The time was around 1.30 pm and the results were announced around 2 pm.
Rahul replied: "I can't comment on the Congress president's role, that's for Mr Kharge to comment on… I am very clear as far as my role is concerned. The president will decide what my role is and how I am to be deployed... that you have to ask Kharge ji and Sonia ji… The final authority in the Congress party is the Congress president. And we will have a new Congress president. And that gentleman will decide exactly how the party moves forward."
The election was mocked after Rahul’s remarks. However, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh defended Rahul.
In a tweet, he said, “There have been erroneous media reports that Rahul Gandhi announced Kharge ji as Congress president during his press meet that began at Adoni at around 1 pm. The fact is that the direction of voting was quite clear before the press meet began.”
4. Support base
Be it Kharge or Sonia, both of them enjoyed massive support from party leaders and workers – the former because he was viewed as the favourite of the Nehru-Gandhis and the latter because she herself is the head of the Congress’s first family which has a strong hold over the party.
In contrast, both Tharoor and Prasada suffered from a handicap in the sense that senior party leaders did not want to be seen as associated with them.
This was evident from the very beginning. Kharge filed 14 sets of papers while Tharoor filed five. Each set comprised 10 proposers. So, while Tharoor had 50 proposers despite having decided much in advance to contest the election, Kharge had 140 proposers even though his candidature was decided just a few hours before he filed the nomination.
Kharge’s proposers included party heavyweights such as AK Antony, Ashok Gehlot, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Abhishek Singhvi, Ajay Maken, Bhupinder Hooda, Digvijaya Singh, Tariq Anwar, Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Vinit Punia, Salman Khurshid, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Deepender Hooda, Narayanasamy, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia and Rajeev Shukla.
Though Tharoor was a part of G-23 – the group of 23 dissenting leaders who had written a letter to Sonia in 2020 demanding reforms to bring about transparency in the leadership – other dissenters such as Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Bhupinder Hooda abandoned him and rallied behind Kharge instead.
Only a handful of supporters were present with Tharoor when he filed the nomination. However, there was a battery of prominent leaders, most of whom proposed Kharge’s candidature, who accompanied him.
Like Tharoor who had just a couple of constant companions – Chennai MP Karti P Chidambaram and Salman Soz – Jitendra Prasada too had two loyal friends who backed him till the end. They were UP Lok Sabha members Begum Noor Bano and Sujan Singh Bundela.
After the results were declared, Karti tweeted, with a smiley emoji, the number of votes Tharoor had garnered .
Salman, on his part, congratulated Tharoor and said the small team had achieved the impossible. "Congratulations to my dear friend @ShashiTharoor for getting 1072 votes in the election of the @INCIndia president. For those who understand Indian politics, our small team has done the impossible. This is a hugely positive result and I thank our voters. #ThinkTomorrowThinkTharoor"
5. Hostile treatment
Both Tharoor and Prasada faced hostile treatment from party leaders during their campaign. Prasada, in fact, faced it even later.
Tharoor complained that there were indications of an “uneven playing field”. He said, “In several PCCs, leaders welcomed Kharge Sahab. But this was not done for me. I visited PCCs but the PCC chiefs were not available. I am not complaining, but do you not see a difference in treatment?"
However, Mistry rubbished the allegations and said, “I've no answer to allegations levelled before the media but if someone draws our attention to any wrongdoing, we'll rectify it.”
BJP's co-in-charge of West Bengal Amit Malviya took a dig at Tharoor over the complaints.
In a tweet, he said, “Shashi Tharoor is whining like a sore loser. Did he actually expect elections in Congress to be free and fair? He should be grateful that he wasn’t locked up in the bathroom… The worst is still to come. In the next few months he will be ridiculed and shamed for taking on the Gandhis.”
In the same manner as Tharoor, Prasada also allegedly faced resistance from Sonia’s supporters.
Prasada’s effigy was reportedly burnt outside the party headquarters at 24, Akbar Road on a number of occasions.
