Congress presidential polls-209 out of 223 delegates exercise franchise in U’khand
Tuesday, 18 October 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Congressmen from Uttarakhand enthusiastically participated in the Congress presidential election held on Monday. Out of the 223 State delegates (PCC ), 209 participated in the voting to elect the first non Gandhi president of the party in 22 years. The vice president (Organisation) Mathura Dutt Joshi informed that 197 delegates exercised their franchise at the polling centre set up at the headquarters of Uttarakhand Congress in Dehradun. The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Uttarakhand Assembly Yashpal Arya, former PCC presidents Pritam Singh and Ganesh Godiyal and others cast their vote in Dehradun. Former chief minister Harish Rawat, secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Qazi Nizamuddin and DP Singh exercised their franchise in Delhi while former MP and Provincial Returning Officer (PRO) of Bihar, Pradip Tamta and DRO of Bihar Harish Ethani voted in Patna, Bihar. Former AICC secretary and PRO of Jharkhand, Prakash Joshi voted in Ranchi while APRO of Rajasthan Jayendra Ramola voted in Jaipur. Congress leaders Manish Khanduri, Rajpal Bisht, Vaibhav Valia and former MLA Lalit Pharswan who are taking part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi voted at Bellary in Karnataka.
The AICC had deputed senior leader GC Chandrashekhar as (PRO) for Uttarakhand. He along with APROs Mano Bhardwaj, Jaishankar Pathak, DRO of Dehradun Dharmendra Solanki and ADRO Harsh Bansal presided over the election process.
Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are in contention for the post of the President of the Congress party.
In an informal interaction with the media persons the PCC president Karan Mahara said that being a democratic party the election of its president occurs by process of voting while the party which accuses Congress elects its president clandestinely. The name of their new president is known through newspapers, he quipped. The PCC President thanked the PRO, APROs, DRO, the polling agents of both candidates, Sewa Dal workers and security personnel for the election process.
