Mallikarjun Kharge elected new president of Indian National Congress

New Delhi, Oct 19 (PTI): Mallikarjun Kharge was on Wednesday elected the Congress president after defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history.

Karti Chidambaram, a counting agent for Tharoor, declared after the counting process was over that Kharge had won the polls and the Kerala MP had got 1,072 votes.

Of the total 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates that formed the electoral college to pick the party chief in a secret ballot, over 9,500 cast their ballot at PCC offices and the AICC headquarters on Monday In a statement, Tharoor said the final verdict has been in favour of Kharge. He also conveyed his congratulations to Kharge for his victory.