While Shashi Tharoor has lost the Congress presidential elections, he seems to have ‘won a heart’, but quite literally, as per reports.
While his opponent, Mallikarjun Kharge, received 7,897 votes, Tharoor received 1,072 votes, ensuring Kharge’s comfortable victory. Among the 416 invalid votes are hidden some fascinating stories.
Tharoor, who is often credited for his charms on social media, apparently received a ‘heart and an arrow’ next to his name on the Congress poll ballot paper. Sources in the Tharoor camp told India Today that at least one of the invalid votes had a heart and an arrow drawn on the column next to the leader’s name.
Another ballot had a swastika drawn before Kharge’s name and a tick next to Tharoor’s name, implying a conflict between the voter’s will and God’s will, said the report.
Several invalid votes had Rahul Gandhi written on the ballot papers, indicating that they both were not the best choice for the Congress’ top job.
Team Tharoor is apparently overjoyed with their 12% vote share of the total votes cast. The Tharoor camp’s analysis revealed that he received the most votes from Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh, because all ballot papers were mixed to ensure no one knew which candidates received how many votes from which state.
‘Pitched Myself as Candidate of Change, Not Dissent’
As Mallikarjun Kharge was elected Congress president, Tharoor on Wednesday said he had pitched himself as the candidate of change and not of dissent, while asserting that the revival of the party has truly begun.
Addressing a press conference hours after his defeat, Tharoor also urged Congress president-elect Kharge to implement that provision of the Congress constitution that calls for elections to the Congress Working Committee.
The Congress presidential election has energised party workers to take on the challenge the BJP poses in upcoming elections, said Tharoor. “This is not an issue about an individual. I only wish that the party is strengthened. For a stronger India, you need a stronger Congress,” he said. Kharge’s victory was a victory of the Congress, he said, adding the party’s presidential election was to strengthen the organisation.
Asked if he represented dissent, Tharoor said, “I did not pitch myself as the candidate of dissent, I pitched myself as a candidate of change and change not in the ideology of the party or the direction of the party but the manner in which we do our work.”
“I did feel there was the need for opening up access to the workers, creating more opportunities for discussion forums, implementing not only the declarations of the Udaipur Chintan Shivir but additional ideas that I had publicised in the manifesto. For me, I would stress it is not so much about dissent but how we can make a good party better,” he said.
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