Tharoor gives toughest fight to winning Congress President in three decades

Shashi Tharoor can brag about one thing -- he has given the toughest fight to a winning Congress presidential candidate in the past three decades compared to other losing candidates like Sharad Pawar, Rajesh Pilot and Jitendra Prasada.

When it comes to a losing candidate grabbing votes, Tharoor has surpassed all the three towering candidates in the last three elections to the post of Congress President.

Tharoor grabbed 1,072 votes which accounts for 11.48 per cent of 9,385 votes polled against the winning Mallikarjun Kharge at the final count. This was only the sixth election in the history of the 137-year-old party and fifth in independent India.

Compare this with Jitendra Prasada in 2000 -- the fifth election, when he fought against Sonia Gandhi. Against Sonia's around 7,400 votes, he could manage only 94.

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The 1997 election saw Pawar and Pilot taking on Sitaram Kesri, who finally won the race with 6,224 votes (83,43 per cent). Pawar managed 882 (11.82 per cent), while Pilot got only 354 (4.75 per cent).

The first election to Congress president took place in 1939 when Pattabhi Sitaramayya took on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Mahatma Gandhi's candidate Sitaramayya with 1,337 votes (46.57 per cent) lost to Bose who gathered the support of 1,580 (53.43 per cent).

Then in 1950 came the second contest when Purshottam Das Tandon and Acharya Kripalani contested for the top post.

Tandon, who was seen as a Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel loyalist, won the contest with 1,306 votes (50,23 per cent), against then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's choice Kripalini 1,092 votes (42 per cent). A third candidate Sankara Rao got 202 votes (7.77 per cent).

The next contest came 27 years later in 1977 following the resignation of Dev Kant Barooah as party president in the wake of the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

K Brahmananda Reddy, who garnered 317 votes (64.3 per cent), defeated Siddhartha Shankar Ray with 160 votes (32.45 per cent) and Karan Singh (16 votes or 3.25 per cent) in the polls for Congress chief.