Dy CM, Maya target Cong over its first non-Gandhi chief in over 2 decades
Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, a dalit leader defeated his political rival and party veteran Shashi Tharoor, 66, to be elected the first Congress chief in 24 years who does not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi family
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) took potshots at the Congress, a day after Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, a dalit leader defeated his political rival and party veteran Shashi Tharoor, 66, to be elected the first Congress chief in 24 years who does not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
While BSP chief Mayawati alleged that the Congress remembered “dalits” only in its tough times, U.P. deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya sought to question if the new Congress chief would actually be free to take decisions without ‘family’ influence.
“Congress history bears witness that it has mostly neglected the dalits whose safety and security it doesn’t bother about when the going is good but makes the community a sacrificial lamb in its bad days,” Mayawati said in a series of tweets on Thursday.
“The Congress mostly remembers non-dalits when it is having a good run and remembers dalits only when it is facing a bad time. Is this Congress’s real love for dalits?” Mayawati tweeted. Kharge will take over as the Congress chief on October 26 but before that U.P.’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya too took veiled potshots at the appointment.
“I was watching and hearing that Mallikarjun Kharge ji has been made the new Congress chief, may be elected as the new chief. This is an internal matter of the Congress party but as you say if the election process initiated at the behest of Sonia Gandhi ji was free and fair and if the new Congress chief won’t be a stooge of the (Gandhi) family, we will see and decide,” Maurya said.
In the run-up to the Congress election too, both Kharge and his lone political rival for the top party post Shashi Tharoor had during their UP campaign been subjected to queries wanting to know if the election was a lopsided one.
Both Kharge and Tharoor had said the Gandhis were ‘neutral’ but had then gone on to make differing claims. Kharge was frequently asked why he was considered the runaway favourite and Tharoor kept claiming that there was pressure on leaders to vote for Kharge.
On the eve of the results, Tharoor’s side had levelled “extremely serious irregularities” during polls in UP–a charge subsequently denied by Rameshwar Lal Dudi, the returning officer for the poll in U.P. “All doubts have been addressed and there is no confusion anymore,” Dudi said.
With around 14 per cent of the total vote, U.P. played a big role in these Congress polls. The turnout in these polls in U.P. was good too with nearly 1200 of the 1247 delegates from the state casting their vote.
U.P. BJP leader Navin Srivastava, however, said, “It was one election where the winner was known and the eventual margin of win confirmed the result that many had known at the start. Allegations notwithstanding, we wish good luck to the new Congress chief though.”
