As counting was underway to elect the the first non-Gandhi president in 24 years for the Congress party, candidate Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday, 19 October, alleged irregularities in the counting process in Uttar Pradesh and raised the issue with the party's poll body.
Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, however, said that there are "no basis for contents in letter, nothing specific in complaints given to us," reported news agency PTI.
Tharoor was up against senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who won against Tharoor by a margin of over 7,000 votes.
Salman Soz, election agent for Tharoor, wrote a letter Madhusudan Mistry, claiming that Kharge's supporters in UP were resorting to malpractices, underlining that Kharge himself would not be aware of those or he "would not have allowed them."
Catch live updates on the counting here.