Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on his election as party president on Wednesday and wished him a fruitful tenure. "My best wishes to Shri Mallikarjun Kharge Ji for his new responsibility as President of @INCIndia. May he have a fruitful tenure ahead," Modi tweeted.
Kharge was elected Congress president, defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history. The Karnataka leader will formally take over as the party's president on October 26.The counting for the election held on october 17 was conducted today. Congress' central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry announced after the counting of votes that of the 9,385 votes polled in the Congress president poll, Kharge got 7,897 votes and Shashi Tharoor 1,072 votes, while 416 votes were declared invalid.