New Delhi: On a day when about 9,500 Congress delegates voted to elect a non-Gandhi to guide the social gathering after a spot of two-and-a-half a long time, interim social gathering president Sonia Gandhi mentioned that she had been ready for this second for a “very long time”.
Will probably be a 48-hour wait to know whether or not Mallikarjun Kharge, who’s seen because the Gandhis’ unofficial nominee, or Shashi Tharoor, a member of G-23, a ginger group, will get to guide the social gathering for the following 5 years.
A complete of 87 delegates voted Monday on the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in Delhi, whereas 50 delegates who’re part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra voted in Ballari.
“I’ve been ready for today for a very long time,” Sonia mentioned after she forged her vote for the Congress presidential elections, which is seeing a couple of participant for the primary time in 22 years.
Whereas Sonia and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra forged vote on the Congress headquarters in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi voted in Karnataka the place he’s main the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Footage confirmed Rahul ready in line exterior a container which was transformed to a polling sales space. The yatra, which started in September, had a break at Ballari. It can resume Tuesday and head to Andhra Pradesh.
Again in Delhi, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram was the primary voter, coming in quickly after polling started at 10am. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh additionally voted in Delhi. Different senior leaders who forged ballots in Delhi embrace Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Meira Kumar.
The 2 candidates, Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, voted at their state headquarters in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, respectively. Earlier than voting, the 2 had a telephonic dialog and wished one another luck.
The marketing campaign within the run-up to elections, nonetheless, noticed some hiccups with Tharoor claiming that senior leaders weren’t popping out in help of him. Later, the 2 candidates maintained that the election is an intra-party one and that they’ll proceed to work for the social gathering no matter who wins.
‘96% voter turnout’
Talking to the press after polls closed, Congress’ Election Authority (CEA) chairman Madhusudan Mistry knowledgeable that there was roughly 96 per cent voter turnout as per provisional numbers.
Mistry mentioned that there have been a complete of 9,915 delegates who have been registered to vote. Of them, about 9,500 delegates voted.
Relating to the counting course of, Mistry mentioned that there shall be no strategy to decide what number of votes a candidate has acquired from every state.
“The primary poll field shall be opened and its contents shall be emptied onto a material. Thereafter, the second poll field shall be opened and the content material of that shall be emptied over the contents of the primary field. The identical will occur with the third field, 4th field and so forth for 36 occasions. That is being executed to make sure that the secrecy of the poll is maintained,” he mentioned.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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