With the Congress set to get its new president on Wednesday, Shashi Tharoor has alleged “extremely serious irregularities” in the conduct of the presidential poll in Uttar Pradesh.
In a letter to Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, Tharoor's team demanded that all votes from the state be deemed invalid. Tharoor's chief election agent Salman Soz said the facts are 'damning' and that the team suspects “voter fraud” that there were delegates who were not present in the Lucknow area on the day of voting and their votes were cast.
Tharoor is contesting against senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is perceived to be the favourite with the 'unofficial' backing of the Gandhis. The party, however, has maintained that the Gandhis are neutral and that there is no "official candidate"
"We would like to underline that we have no evidence that Mallikarjun Kharge ji was aware of how his supporters were engaging in electoral malpractice in Uttar Pradesh. We are certain that if he were aware, he would never allow what happened in Uttar Pradesh. He would not allow the tainting of an election that is so important for the Indian National Congress," team Tharoor wrote, according to a report by NDTV.
The "irregularities" flagged by Tharoor's team include use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes, presence of unofficial persons in polling booths, voting malpractice, no polling summary sheet, presence of AICC secretaries in-Charge of Uttar Pradesh.
Tharoor has repeatedly spoken about uneven playing field in the polls that were held to pick the party's first non-Gandhi chief in 24 years.
The counting of ballots is underway, and the results are likely to be out by 4pm.
-with PTI inputs
