Shashi Tharoor may have lost by a mile, but these numbers are comforting

He may have lost by a big margin, but Shashi Tharoor did put up a big fight in the election for Congress president. In fact, the best fight in three elections over the last 25 years.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP secured 1,072 votes of the total of 9,385 votes, while Mallikarjun Kharge finished way ahead with 7,897 votes.

416 votes were declared invalid. So Tharoor effectively ended up with 11.95% of the valid votes cast.


Considering the Congress tradition of going wholeheartedly with candidates favoured, though not openly, by the Nehru-Gandhi family, Tharoor could be proud of his tally.

in 1997, when Sitaram Kesri was the "official candidate", Sharad Pawar contesting against him got nearly 11.9% percent of the total valid votes. Which was less than Tharoor's present tally.

The one in 2001 was a walkover, with Jitendra Prasad - father of Jitin Prasada who switched over to the BJP before the UP elections - getting less than 100 votes.

IANS reported quoting sources that Tharoor managed to secure 130 votes out of the 297 votes from his home state of Kerala, which is an impressive number given the fact practically all the bigwigs from Kerala stood openly with Malikarjuna Kharge.

State Congress president K. Sudhakaran, who dilly dallied on taking a position in the polls, said the Congress has emerged stronger and Tharoor will be given a key post in the party for sure.

Tharoor called on party president-elect Mallikarjun Kharge after the results were known and offered his full cooperation going forward.

"Called on our new President-elect Mallikarjun Kharge to congratulate him & offer him my full co-operation. Congress has been strengthened by our contest," Tharoor tweeted along with pictures of his meeting with Kharge.

He later said the Congress presidential election has energised party workers to take on the challenge the BJP poses in upcoming elections.