Congress slams Shashi Tharoor, has two faces

Congress on Thursday called Shashi Tharoor two-faced in a sharp pushback against his allegations of "extremely serious irregularities" in the internal polls. "I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you're satisfied with all our answers and different face in the media which made all these allegations against us," Madhusudan Mistry, who was election in-charge, said after Shashi Tharoor's team alleged "damning evidence" of violations. Mallikarjun Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor by a landslide in the polls held on Monday to become the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years.

Tharoor's election agent Salman Soz wrote to  Mistry flagging four complaints against the polling process were brought up: use of unofficial seals for ballot boxes, presence of unofficial persons in polling booths, malpractices indulged during the voting and the absence of polling sheets. "We did not contest this election to accept business as usual. We are ready to fight for the integrity of this election. Winning or losing matters little given that both contestants are part of the same family," the letter said. Tharoor regretted that a "strictly internal letter" was leaked and said, "let's move on", the Congress was blunt and unforgiving in its response.