Mallikarjun Kharge, the newly elected Congress president, was Sonia Gandhi's undeclared choice for the post, said former Congress leader Ashwini Kumar, adding the elections demonstrated the Gandhi family's "pre-eminence" in the party. He said the 80-year-old's election showed that Gandhi still has the last word when it comes to the party's internal politics.
Kumar, a former Union minister, said Kharge's election raised doubts about Congress leaders' claim that the Gandhis were neutral and weren't backing any candidate.
"That Kharge was her undeclared choice is indisputable notwithstanding vehement denials by the establishment to the contrary. Sonia Gandhi has once again demonstrated her astute political judgment in using elections to demonstrate the family's pre-eminence in the party established over long years of exercise of political patronage," Kumar said in a statement, as per PTI.
.
Kumar said Shashi Tharoor wasn't a loser in the elections as he made a political statement.
"The election process is a victory for him. He invested his energy in making a political statement by walking the talk. He has clearly outshone most of his once-upon-a-time colleagues in the G-23 grouping and has positioned himself as a challenger," Kumar said.
Kharge defeated Tharoor with over 6,000 votes in a landslide victory.
Tharoor had earlier said that the Gandhis were neutral in the elections.
However, he later said in an interview that several of the state unit chiefs were giving him a cold shoulder when he went to campaign in their states, implying that there wasn't a level playing field.
On Wednesday, his team wrote to the party alleging irregularities in Uttar Pradesh and demanding to scrap off elections there.
Kumar is one of the many dissident leaders who quit the party over the years amid demand for more internal democracy in the Congress party.
