New Delhi: The members of the Congress Party will vote to elect their president today. Voting will be held from 10 am to 4 pm. While the counting of votes will take place on Wednesday, October 19 and the results will be declared on the same day. The main contest for the post of Congress President is between Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor.
AICC members will participate
All India Congress Committee members will participate in this election. For the Congress President, those 9 thousand representatives of the party who are members of the Pradesh Congress Committees (PCC) will vote. These are also called delegates.
Rahul Gandhi will cast his vote at Sanganakullu in Bellary. Rahul Gandhi will cast his vote at the polling station specially made for the people of Bharat Jodo Yatra. Whereas the current Congress President (Interim) Sonia Gandhi, along with AICC General Secretary, State In-charge, Secretary and Joint Secretaries will cast their vote at 24 Akbar Road i.e. Congress Headquarters in the morning. Voting will be held at the Congress headquarters as well as in the offices of the State Congress Committee present across the country.
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‘Election process will be completely transparent’: Mistry
Congress’s Central Election Committee chief Madhusudan Mistry says that this election will be completely transparent and secret ballot. 38 polling stations have been set up across the country. Mistry further said that who will vote for whom in this poll, it cannot be ascertained. With this, how many votes were received from which state, it will also not be known. He said that it will be decided that both the candidates get equal chances.
Significantly, both Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge, who are trying their luck for the post of Congress President, have made many big announcements while releasing their respective manifestos.
Here is what Mallikarjun Kharge’s manifesto say
- If the election is won, then 50 percent of the posts of the party will be appointed by the leaders below the age of 50 years.
- Udaipur Declaration will be fully implemented.
- Women, SC, ST and OBC leaders will be given due representation.
- It will be ensured that no leader stays in one post for more than five years.
- Will prepare the party to fight with full force against BJP in 2024 elections.
Here is what Shashi Tharoor’s manifesto say
- Youth-women and party workers will be empowered.
- The decision of the state, district and block organization will be taken at the local level instead of the top leadership in Delhi.
- Hardworking workers will be given more responsibility and respect.
- People below 50 years of age will not get tickets for important posts in the organization, tickets in elections and those who lose two elections on one seat will not get the ticket again.
- If he becomes the president, there will be an emphasis on maintaining direct relations with the workers.
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Cong to get non-Gandhi President in 20 years
This is the first time in the last two decades that the 137-year-old party’s president will be headed by a non-Gandhi. If we look at the history of the last 50 years, the Congress President has been elected only twice. First in 1997 and then in 2000.
In the 1997 election, three candidates were in the fray. Among them were Sitaram Kesari, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot. Sitaram Kesari became the Congress President by getting 6224 votes.
After this, in the year 2000, the election of Congress President was held between Sonia Gandhi and Jitendra Prasad, in which Sonia Gandhi got 7,448 votes and Jitendra Prasad got 94 votes.
