Kharge vs Tharoor on Monday as Congress set for non-Gandhi prez after 24 years
9 min readBy PTI
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor will face-off in an electoral contest on Monday for the submit of AICC chief, because the occasion will get set to have a non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.
Over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates type the electoral school to select the occasion chief in a secret poll.
Voting would additionally happen on the AICC headquarters right here and at over 65 polling cubicles throughout the nation in an electoral contest which is happening for the sixth time within the occasion’s 137-year historical past.
While occasion chief Sonia Gandhi and Congress normal secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are anticipated to vote on the AICC headquarters right here, Rahul Gandhi will likely be voting on the Bharat Jodo Yatra campsite in Karnataka’s Sanganakallu in Ballari together with round 40 different Bharat Yatris who’re PCC delegates.
Kharge is taken into account the agency favorite for his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and backing by senior leaders, at the same time as Tharoor has pitched himself because the candidate of change.
During the marketing campaign, despite the fact that Tharoor has raised problems with uneven enjoying discipline, each candidates and the occasion have maintained that the Gandhis are impartial and that there is no such thing as a “official candidate”.
ALSO READ | Sixth time in its 137-year-history Congress all set to have inside elections for its president
Asked in regards to the significance of the polls, Congress normal secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh advised PTI that he has all the time believed within the Congress mannequin of evolving a consensus for such positions.
The most well-known practitioner of this strategy within the post-Nehruvian period was Ok Kamaraj, he famous.
“As we approach E-Day tomorrow this belief has become even stronger. The reasons for this are pretty obvious,” Ramesh stated with out elaborating.
“I am not at all convinced that organisational elections actually strengthen the organisation in any way. They may serve individual purposes but their value in building a collective spirit is doubtful,” he stated.
Even so, the actual fact that elections are happening is of some significance, he added.
“But I consider them of less institutional importance than the historic Bharat Jodo Yatra which is a transformational initiative for the Congress and for Indian politics as well,” Ramesh stated.
Though the marketing campaign has been largely a couple of roadmap for the occasion which the 2 candidates have elaborated upon throughout their conferences with PCC delegates at varied headquarters of the occasion in states, it has additionally seen complaints and claims of an uneven enjoying discipline by the Tharoor camp.
The distinction within the campaigns has been stark, whereas Kharge’s marketing campaign has seen a number of senior leaders, PCC chiefs and prime leaders receiving him on the state headquarters visited by him, Tharoor has principally been welcomed by younger PCC delegates with PCC chiefs principally absent from his occasions.
Tharoor has underlined throughout his marketing campaign that he’s the candidate of change whereas Kharge of established order.
He has additionally claimed that children and other people in decrease ranges of the occasion are supporting him, whereas seniors are backing his rival.
ALSO READ | Congress president ballot: Most PCC chiefs backing Kharge, says Tharoor
Kharge, on his half, has highlighted his expertise, developing the organizational ranks over a long time and his skill to take everybody alongside.
Both the leaders have emphasised that the Gandhis maintain a particular place within the occasion with Kharge saying that he would search their “guidance” and “suggestions”, and Tharoor asserting that no Congress president can perform maintaining a distance from the Gandhi household as their DNA runs within the occasion’s blood.
The final electoral contest for the highest submit of the occasion passed off in 2000 when Jitendra Prasada had suffered a crushing defeat by the hands of Sonia Gandhi.
Also, with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra deciding to not be within the working for the occasion president’s submit, a non-Gandhi could be on the helm after over 24 years.
Congress’ central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry stated on Wednesday that the Congress presidential polls will likely be held by a secret poll and nobody will get to know who voted for whom.
He had asserted {that a} level-playing discipline had been ensured for each candidates.
Mistry had additionally demonstrated to reporters the poll containers, poll paper and the way the votes could be forged.
He had stated the sealed containers could be transported to Delhi, stored in a powerful room on the AICC headquarters and opened in Delhi.
The poll papers could be blended earlier than counting begins.
Kharge and Tharoor not solely possess contrasting demeanours however have had an equally disparate political journey.
On the one facet, there may be 80-year-old Kharge, a grassroots politician and a hardcore loyalist of the Gandhi household and on the opposite is 66-year-old Tharoor – articulate, erudite and suave – who is understood for talking his thoughts and joined the Congress in 2009 after an extended stint on the United Nations.
The distinction just isn’t restricted to their manner and pondering but additionally their backgrounds — whereas Kharge was born in a poor household at Varavatti in Bidar district, did his education and BA in addition to Law in Gulbarga, Tharoor was born in London and has an exceptional training background.
Tharoor, who hails from the Nair group of Kerala, has studied at premier establishments in India and the US, together with St Stephen’s College in Delhi and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts.
Tharoor accomplished his Ph.D.in 1978 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
A pacesetter with greater than 50 years of expertise in politics, Kharge, who was elected MLA for 9 instances in a row and has been pitched as a Dalit chief by his occasion colleagues, has seen a gradual rise in his profession graph from humble beginnings as a union chief in his home-district of Gulbarga, now Kalaburagi.
The Congress presidential ballot will happen on October 17 and the outcomes will likely be out on October 19.
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor will face-off in an electoral contest on Monday for the submit of AICC chief, because the occasion will get set to have a non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.
Over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates type the electoral school to select the occasion chief in a secret poll.
Voting would additionally happen on the AICC headquarters right here and at over 65 polling cubicles throughout the nation in an electoral contest which is happening for the sixth time within the occasion’s 137-year historical past.
While occasion chief Sonia Gandhi and Congress normal secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are anticipated to vote on the AICC headquarters right here, Rahul Gandhi will likely be voting on the Bharat Jodo Yatra campsite in Karnataka’s Sanganakallu in Ballari together with round 40 different Bharat Yatris who’re PCC delegates.
Kharge is taken into account the agency favorite for his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and backing by senior leaders, at the same time as Tharoor has pitched himself because the candidate of change.
During the marketing campaign, despite the fact that Tharoor has raised problems with uneven enjoying discipline, each candidates and the occasion have maintained that the Gandhis are impartial and that there is no such thing as a “official candidate”.
ALSO READ | Sixth time in its 137-year-history Congress all set to have inside elections for its president
Asked in regards to the significance of the polls, Congress normal secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh advised PTI that he has all the time believed within the Congress mannequin of evolving a consensus for such positions.
The most well-known practitioner of this strategy within the post-Nehruvian period was Ok Kamaraj, he famous.
“As we approach E-Day tomorrow this belief has become even stronger. The reasons for this are pretty obvious,” Ramesh stated with out elaborating.
“I am not at all convinced that organisational elections actually strengthen the organisation in any way. They may serve individual purposes but their value in building a collective spirit is doubtful,” he stated.
Even so, the actual fact that elections are happening is of some significance, he added.
“But I consider them of less institutional importance than the historic Bharat Jodo Yatra which is a transformational initiative for the Congress and for Indian politics as well,” Ramesh stated.
Though the marketing campaign has been largely a couple of roadmap for the occasion which the 2 candidates have elaborated upon throughout their conferences with PCC delegates at varied headquarters of the occasion in states, it has additionally seen complaints and claims of an uneven enjoying discipline by the Tharoor camp.
The distinction within the campaigns has been stark, whereas Kharge’s marketing campaign has seen a number of senior leaders, PCC chiefs and prime leaders receiving him on the state headquarters visited by him, Tharoor has principally been welcomed by younger PCC delegates with PCC chiefs principally absent from his occasions.
Tharoor has underlined throughout his marketing campaign that he’s the candidate of change whereas Kharge of established order.
He has additionally claimed that children and other people in decrease ranges of the occasion are supporting him, whereas seniors are backing his rival.
ALSO READ | Congress president ballot: Most PCC chiefs backing Kharge, says Tharoor
Kharge, on his half, has highlighted his expertise, developing the organizational ranks over a long time and his skill to take everybody alongside.
Both the leaders have emphasised that the Gandhis maintain a particular place within the occasion with Kharge saying that he would search their “guidance” and “suggestions”, and Tharoor asserting that no Congress president can perform maintaining a distance from the Gandhi household as their DNA runs within the occasion’s blood.
The final electoral contest for the highest submit of the occasion passed off in 2000 when Jitendra Prasada had suffered a crushing defeat by the hands of Sonia Gandhi.
Also, with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra deciding to not be within the working for the occasion president’s submit, a non-Gandhi could be on the helm after over 24 years.
Congress’ central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry stated on Wednesday that the Congress presidential polls will likely be held by a secret poll and nobody will get to know who voted for whom.
He had asserted {that a} level-playing discipline had been ensured for each candidates.
Mistry had additionally demonstrated to reporters the poll containers, poll paper and the way the votes could be forged.
He had stated the sealed containers could be transported to Delhi, stored in a powerful room on the AICC headquarters and opened in Delhi.
The poll papers could be blended earlier than counting begins.
Kharge and Tharoor not solely possess contrasting demeanours however have had an equally disparate political journey.
On the one facet, there may be 80-year-old Kharge, a grassroots politician and a hardcore loyalist of the Gandhi household and on the opposite is 66-year-old Tharoor – articulate, erudite and suave – who is understood for talking his thoughts and joined the Congress in 2009 after an extended stint on the United Nations.
The distinction just isn’t restricted to their manner and pondering but additionally their backgrounds — whereas Kharge was born in a poor household at Varavatti in Bidar district, did his education and BA in addition to Law in Gulbarga, Tharoor was born in London and has an exceptional training background.
Tharoor, who hails from the Nair group of Kerala, has studied at premier establishments in India and the US, together with St Stephen’s College in Delhi and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts.
Tharoor accomplished his Ph.D.in 1978 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
A pacesetter with greater than 50 years of expertise in politics, Kharge, who was elected MLA for 9 instances in a row and has been pitched as a Dalit chief by his occasion colleagues, has seen a gradual rise in his profession graph from humble beginnings as a union chief in his home-district of Gulbarga, now Kalaburagi.
The Congress presidential ballot will happen on October 17 and the outcomes will likely be out on October 19.
