Shashi Tharoor camp wants UP votes to be deemed invalid as Congress gears for new president

Tharoor’s election agent Salman Soz shot a letter to party poll committee chief, alleging several malpractices in the UP voting, which ‘favoured’ opponent Mallikarjun Kharge.

Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor casts his vote for Congress presidential election, at Indira Bhavan, in Thiruvananthapuram on 17 October 2022 | ANI Photo

New Delhi: Elections to choose the first non-Gandhi Congress president in over 20 years came with its share of drama on counting day Wednesday, with the Shashi Tharoor camp alleging several malpractices in the Uttar Pradesh polling.

The Tharoor camp, pitted against the “official” candidate Mallikarjun Kharge, has written a letter to the Chairman of the Congress’ Election Authority (CEA) Madhusudan Mistry, asking for votes cast in Uttar Pradesh to be cancelled.

Tharoor’s chief election agent Salman Soz gave four reasons behind their demand.

First, was the use of “unofficial seals” to secure the ballot boxes in the state. The Tharoor camp said that on voting day Monday, their agents had raised concerns with pradesh returning officers (PROs) and assistant pradesh returning officers (APROs) on the lack of a “proper sealing mechanism” for ballot boxes. At that time, they were told the seal would be applied later.

Second reason, they pointed out, was the presence of “unauthorised people” in polling booths. The letter alleged that at least three people, who were “influential local leaders” were present in polling booths and “acted as presiding officers”. One of them was Omveer Yadav, who proposed Mallikarjun Kharge’s nomination.

The third, was voting malpractice. The Tharoor camp said votes of those delegates who were not present in Lucknow were mysteriously cast. In addition, many delegates apparently found out that their votes had been polled before they even reached the booth.

Lastly, the Tharoor camp said the polling summary sheet, which was to be compulsorily signed by agents of both candidates at the end of the process, was not presented to Tharoor’s representatives.

“We did not contest this election to accept business as usual. We are ready to fight for the integrity of this election,” Soz wrote in the letter.

Presence of AICC in-charges for UP at polling booth

Soz also alleged that All India Congress Committee secretaries in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Pradeep Narwal, Tauqueer Alam and Dhiraj Gurjar, were present at different polling booths in Lucknow, in defiance of the CEA’s rule that general secretaries and secretaries in-charge of a particular state could not cast their votes in their assigned state.

The rules state that they have to either vote in their home state or at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.

“Other senior leaders (AICC and Pradesh Congress Committee) were observed in and around polling booths instructing voters to vote a certain way. That AICC secretaries should violate the spirit of your instructions on October 15 shows us the impunity with which some of our colleagues operate,” wrote Soz.