New Delhi: Mallikarjun Kharge was on Wednesday elected as the new Congress President after he received 7,897 votes, while his rival Shashi Tharoor managed to secure only 1,072, according to the final result.
A total of 416 votes were declared invalid.
Kharge's supporters broke out in dance and burst crackers outside the AICC headquarters here. He is likely to take charge next week a day after Diwali (October 23).
For the first in over two decades, the Congress got a non-Gandhi President.
Runner-up in the Congress president poll, Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday thanked his supporters, and said that the elections will galvanise the party and its revival has begun.
"I have always expressed the view that these elections, irrespective of the outcome, must ultimately strengthen the party. It gives me immense personal satisfaction that this has clearly been the case," he wrote in a letter.
"Our democratic contest has galvanised vibrancy at all levels and has prompted a healthy and constructive discussion on change, which I believe will serve the party in good stead in the future", Tharoor added.
He thanked his volunteer team of party colleagues "for their amazing efforts against impossible odds to keep our campaign going and congratulated the Chief Election Authority, Madhusudan Mistry, and his colleagues for their efforts to make this possible."
"It is our duty to lead the nation to the bright democratic future envisaged by the founders of our Republic. The ideals of a pluralist, prosperous and egalitarian India that inspired Mahatma Gandhi, Nehruji and Dr Ambedkar must be fought for with renewed determination in the face of the onslaught on our most precious values by the ruling party and the forces it has unleashed," he added.
Tharoor said he looks forward to working with the Congress colleagues to face the challenges ahead.
"I believe the revival of our party has truly begun today," Tharoor said after losing to Mallikarjun Kharge.
Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday visited veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge's residence and congratulated him on winning the party presidential poll with a huge margin.
On the other hand, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi soon after the final results were announced said that he will report to the new Congress president who will decide his role in the party.
[24, Akbar Road - Congress headquarters in New Delhi.]
He told reporters at Adoni during Bharat Jodo Yatra that the Congress president will be the final authority and he will decide how the party is going to move forward.
"He will decide what will be my role and how I am to be deployed," the Congress MP said before the announcement of the result of the AICC presidential election.
He declined to answer queries on the role of the president, saying the new president would comment on it.
"As far as the Congress party is concerned, the president will be the final authority. We will have a new Congress president who will decide how the Congress party moves forward," Rahul said.
"Mr Mallikarjun Kharge and Mr Shashi Tharoor are both people with experience and understanding. Whoever gets elected they do not need advice from me. They have experience and understanding and they will decide what to do," he added.
To another query, Rahul said he would report to the Congress president.
"Obviously. In the Congress party the president is the supreme authority and every Congress member reports to that person."
Not even his most diehard supporter expected his victory in the Congress presidential poll, but Thiruvanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor was expected to mount a credible fight.
And that is precisely what happened when he secured 1,072 votes of the total over 9,000, or, a healthy 12 per cent.
Incidentally, the last time there was similar election when Jitendra Prasada contested against Sonia Gandhi, he failed to even trouble those who counted the votes and prior to that even Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot contested against the AICC official candidate Sitaram Kesri, but did not make up a mark.
Compared to this, Tharoor can be proud that with just 13 years in the Congress, he has made a huge impression and got four figure votes.
Meanwhile, according to sources in the know of things, Tharoor, who got 16 members from Kerala to put their signature in his nomination form, has managed to secure 130 votes out of the 297 votes from his home state, which is a very tall figure given the fact practically all the bigwigs from Kerala stood rock stock and barrel for Malikarjuna Kharge, who beat Tharoor by a mile.
State Congress president K. Sudhakaran, who dilly dallied on taking a position in the polls, on Wednesday said the Congress has emerged stronger and Tharoor will be given a key post in the party for sure.
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