It's secret ballot, no one will know who voted for whom: Shashi Tharoor on Congress president poll

"It is a secret ballot. No one will know who voted for whom. There is also no way of knowing which state PCC voted for which candidate as all the ballots would be mixed together before being counted," Tharoor said.

Thiruvananthapuram: In an apparent bid to encourage more Congress delegates to vote for him as he makes an aggressive bid for the party's top post, senior leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said that it was a secret ballot and there would be no way to find out which state voted for which candidate.

The polling for the Congress presidential election is scheduled to be held on October 17.

"It is a secret ballot. No one will know who voted for whom. There is also no way of knowing which state PCC voted for which candidate as all the ballots would be mixed together before being counted," Tharoor, also the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, told reporters here.

On queries regarding senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala's open announcement that he would campaign for veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Tharoor said Chennithala was not an office-bearer in Kerala PCC.

Regarding KPCC chief K Sudhakaran openly declaring he would support Kharge for the party chief's post, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said the announcement was made before the election related guidelines were issued by Congress.

He, however, said that some of his colleagues have informed the election authority about certain things which they felt were not right, but they were not going to raise those issues beyond that.

"Our intention is to unify and strengthen the party and not to malign its efforts towards holding a democratic election for the party chief's post," Tharoor said before leaving for Tamil Nadu to continue his poll campaign there.

A day ago, senior Congress leaders in Kerala had said they were not against Tharoor, but they were of the view that Kharge was better suited for the party chief position.

They were responding to statements made by Tharoor in an interview with a TV channel where he said the party leaders in Kerala appeared to be against him in connection with the Congress presidential polls.

The counting of votes for the polls would be taken up on October 19 and the results are expected the same day. More than 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates form the electorate.