Tharoor's stock rises with 12% votes in Congress presidential polls
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 Oct, 2022 06:01 PM
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 19 (IANS) 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.
The party alleged that family members of Charanjit Singh Channi, a leader of the Congress, are being targeted in order to create a perception and influence electors into believing that Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi through his family members and the Indian National Congress is involved in the allegations of money laundering.
A complaint against Prateek Yadav, the younger son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, had been sent to the investigating agencies in 2021 alleging fake companies being run by him. Prateek Yadav has a brother-in-law, Aman Singh Bisht, the younger brother of his wife Aparna Yadav.
National carrier Air India will commence normal operations to US from Friday, the airline said. On Tuesday, the national carrier said that it will not be able to operate a number of US-bound flights due to the deployment of 5G communications in the US.
Terming the nomination of Mann as a stage managed non-event, the SAD President said AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal never wanted to make Mann the face of the party in Punjab.
As per sources, the ED raided the house of Bhupinder Singh Honey, who is the nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, on Tuesday and Wednesday, seizing around Rs 10 crore in cash from his premises.
On Monday, the political situation in Punjab and the names of probable candidates were discussed in detail at the BJP National Headquarters in Delhi under the chairmanship of party's National President J.P. Nadda, in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah.
