'One face before us, different face in media': Cong slams Tharoor over irregularities allegations

The Congress on Thursday slammed party presidential poll candidate and senior leader Shashi Tharoor over his charge of internal election being rigged.  On Wednesday, Tharoor was defeated by Mallikarjun Kharge, a party member who became the first non-Gandhi party head in more than 24 years. After the ballots were tallied, Tharoor's team complained in writing to Madhusudan Mistry, the head of the Congress Party's Central Election Authority, about "very significant anomalies."

In the four-page letter to Madhusudan Mistry, who oversaw the election, Tharoor’s election agent Salman Soz alleged “use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes, presence of unofficial persons in polling booths, voting malpractice” among other.

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The campaign team for Tharoor further claimed that "unethical procedures" were used to distribute delegate cards in Punjab. They also pointed out that PCC president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring was frequently seen inside polling places, "enabling bogus voting."

Mistry said the complaint was "of a general type and had no validity," putting aside concerns about unfairness and the lack of a level playing field in the election after Tharoor's team submitted the complaint, expressing worry over "irregularities" in votes in Uttar Pradesh. Mistry noted that the complaint shouldn't have been made public.

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"I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you're satisfied with all our answers and different face in the media which made all these allegations against us. We accommodated your request and despite that you went to media alleging Central Election Authority was conspiring against you," Mistry said in his reply.

On Wednesday, immediately after the results were declared, both Kharge and Tharoor claimed that the elections were fair and vowed to work for the Congress party together. Kharge received 7897 of the 9385 votes cast by delegates for the Pradesh Congress Committee while Tharoor received 1072. However, 416 of the votes were illegal.

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