Cong President Elections | No Seal, Kharge's Man in Booth: Tharoor's Allegations

Shashi Tharoor has alleged that Mallikarjun Kharge's supporters resorted to malpractices in Uttar Pradesh.

(Congress President Election 2022)

(Photo: The Quint)

As counting was underway to elect the the first non-Gandhi president in 24 years for the Congress party, candidate Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday, 19 October, alleged irregularities in the counting process in Uttar Pradesh and raised the issue with the party's poll body.

Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, however, said that there are "no basis for contents in letter, nothing specific in complaints given to us," reported news agency PTI.

Tharoor was up against senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who won against Tharoor by a margin of over 7,000 votes.

Salman Soz, election agent for Tharoor, wrote a letter Madhusudan Mistry, claiming that Kharge's supporters in UP were resorting to malpractices, underlining that Kharge himself would not be aware of those or he "would not have allowed them."

Catch live updates on the counting here.

What Has Tharoor Alleged?

Here are the highlights of Tharoor's team's letter to the poll body:

• Our campaign wants to bring to your attention extremely serious irregularities in the conduct of the election in the state of Uttar Pradesh. As you will see, the facts are damning and the election process in UP is devoid of credibility and integrity.

• The letter underlined thatTharoor's team has "no evidence that Mallikarjun Kharge ji was aware of how his supporters were engaging in electoral malpractice in Uttar Pradesh," adding that "We are certain that if he were aware, he would never allow what happened in Uttar Pradesh. He would not allow the tainting of an election that is so important for the Indian National Congress."

• The letter said: "At the end of Polling, the Ballot Box will be sealed by the Polling Officer in presence of the Polling Agent of the candidates with the seal provided by CEA and Polling Agents will put their signature on the box. The Ballot Box once closed and sealed shall not be opened, in any case. Nothing like this happened in Uttar Pradesh."

• The team further alleged that on 17 October, Shri Pranav Jha (AICC Secretary), who was in Lucknow, indicated that only the unofficial plastic seals were received from the central office. "We find it hard to believe that your office, which has tried under very difficult circumstances to organize this election, would somehow send the wrong white seals to only one state. We believe you sent the correct seals to all states and union territories."

• The letter said that the lack of official seals on any of the six ballot boxes, makes the voting in UP void. "It should be noted that in no other state or union territory was there any complaint of a missing white plastic tag with serial number," it said.

• The letter further said that there were three extra people present in the polling booth in Uttar Pradesh on 17 October, one of whom was Omveer Yadav, a proposer of Shri Mallikarjun Kharge. "We don't have to tell you what they were doing in the polling booth. They were certainly not there to promote the candidacy of our candidate."