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.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
Several Supreme Court advocates on Monday claimed to have received an international call with a recorded message asking the apex court not to help the Central government by taking up a case connected with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab last week.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are projected to poll 40 per cent and 36 per cent votes in Punjab, respectively, as per the ABP-CVOTER Battle for the States survey. The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 14, and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
The highest quantity has been procured from Punjab (1,86,85,53 MT) followed by Chhattisgarh (67,65,986 MT) and Telangana (65,54,739 MT) while the highest number of farmers benefitted in are Chhattisgarh (16,90,459), Telangana (9,67,134) and Punjab (9,24,299).
Hockey is one of the most popular sports in Punjab and many players from the state have been integral parts of the national team. The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 14, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court to secure and preserve all records in connection with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab, and also asked the state and Central committees to refrain from conducting inquiries till Monday, when it will take up the matter again.
