Congress party rigged its presidential elections to make Mallikarjun Kharge win, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged. The saffron party alleged this was done so that Kharge can be remote controlled by the Gandhi family once he is elected the party president.
Further, the BJP termed Mallikarjun Kharge as a 'rubber stamp'.
Questioning Congress' entire presidential poll process, BJP IT cell media national head Amit Malviya on Thursday accused the grand-old party of rigging the polls and making Kharge emerge as a winner.
Taking to Twitter, Malviya said, "The Congress President election was rigged with such precision that Mallikarjun Kharge got 88% of the votes, just short of the 90% mark, which could have given Tharoor the option to trigger a formal complaint alleging malpractice. He was denied that manoeuvre too."
Mallikarjun Kharge named Congress president
The Congress on Wednesday elected Mallikarjun Kharge as its president, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years at a time the 137-year-old party is struggling to reverse its slide in the country’s electoral politics.
A staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, the 80-year-old leader defeated Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest by bagging nearly 84 per cent of votes in the party presidential election.
Kharge got 7,897 votes and Tharoor 1,072 votes, while 416 votes were declared invalid, Congress' central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
Addressing a press conference after his victory Kharge said, "no one is big or small, all have to work together as 'karyakartas' to strengthen Congress. We have to fight together against fascist forces who are attacking democracy and Constitution."
Kharge said he will formally take charge on October 26.
Though a late entrant in the Congress' internal elections, held to choose Sonia Gandhi's successor, Kharge's victory was almost certain as he was considered a 'family-approved' candidate.
The last non-Gandhi Congress president was Sitaram Kesri, who was unceremoniously removed in 1998 just after two years into his five-year term.
(With inputs from IANS)
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