As ballots were being tabulated two days after the Congress had a historic election—the first in more than 20 years and one in which no Gandhi was running—Shashi Tharoor claimed "very severe violations."
Veteran politician and "Gandhi-approved" candidate Mallikarjun Kharge is Shashi Tharoor's opponent in the race.
Soon after the ballots started to be counted, Mr. Tharoor's team urged that the votes cast in the state of Uttar Pradesh be thrown out because of claimed "disturbing facts" in the election process. Team Tharoor stated, "We did not enter this election to accept business as usual."
Mr. Tharoor's election agent, Salman Soz, said, "We've been in continual touch with Madhusudan Mistry's office, told them of many different concerns, and cannot delve into its particular at this time.
Team Tharoor said in a letter to Mr. Mistry that it wanted to "draw your attention to exceedingly substantial anomalies in the conduct of the election in the state of Uttar Pradesh. You'll discover that the evidence is overwhelming and that the Uttar Pradesh electoral process lacks credibility and integrity.
According to the letter, what occurred in Uttar Pradesh "is on a whole other level."
"We would want to emphasize that there is no evidence that Mallikarjun Kharge Ji was aware of the election fraud that his supporters were doing in Uttar Pradesh.
We are confident that he would never have let what occurred in Uttar Pradesh if he had been informed.
According to team Tharoor, he will not wait for the Indian National Congress's most crucial election to be tainted.
It raised issues such as improper voting procedures, the use of unofficial seals on vote boxes, and the presence of unauthorized individuals in polling places.
"If the corrupt process in Uttar Pradesh is allowed to remain, we do not see how this election can be regarded as free and fair. Therefore, we demand that all votes cast in Uttar Pradesh be discarded, the letter added.
The Congress will have its first non-Gandhi leader before the end of the day.
From throughout the nation, sealed ballot boxes were delivered to the Congress headquarters in Delhi.
Longtime Gandhi family supporter Mallikarjun Kharge is considered the front-runner in the contest. This has given his detractors ammunition to claim that the Gandhis would remotely rule the party if he wins.
Congress has severely rejected the notion. "All of these (charges) are made by detractors. There is a contest between two capable people… Every attempt is being made to maintain free and impartial voting, "The party's General Secretary-in-Charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, told NDTV