mistry: Madhusudan Mistry: Congress’ ‘TN Seshan’ who presided over celebration’s sixth prez polls in its historical past

Dubbed “Congress’ T N Seshan” by many celebration colleagues, AICC central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry presided over the sixth polls within the celebration’s historical past for electing its chief whereas deftly navigating by discuss of uneven taking part in discipline and fixed media glare.

Believed to be a trusted man of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Mistry has usually been the celebration’s go-to man for daunting assignments, together with taking up Narendra Modi within the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Vadodara.

The election contest between senior celebration leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor got here 22 years after Sonia Gandhi had handed Jitendra Prasada a crushing defeat. The election which was capped by Kharge successful over Tharoor with the previous getting 7,897 votes and the latter 1,072 votes, proved to be a long-drawn affair and a troublesome problem to fulfill for Mistry.

Tharoor, who had raised problems with uneven taking part in discipline, has additionally hailed Mistry as “fair-minded” and identified that there have been “flaws” within the celebration’s system as no such election was held in 22 years.

Mistry’s fair-mindedness and scrupulousness are lauded by many within the celebration.

“Mistry ji is TN Seshan with flowing locks of hair. He has been robust, scrupulous and really demanding of a free, honest and clear ballot,” Congress normal secretary Jairam Ramesh stated, evaluating Mistry to the previous chief election commissioner who was recognized for being strict and non-partisan.

“I needed to get three spokespersons to resign following a directive from him in order that they might marketing campaign for one candidate,” Ramesh instructed PTI.

Mistry set excessive requirements of non-partisanship and actually any complaints on the ballot course of are fully “misplaced and baseless”, he stated.

Mistry’s political journey has been an fascinating one and has additionally seen many ups and downs. He was a part of Shankersinh Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Get together (RJP). He then turned a member of the Indian Nationwide Congress when RJP merged with it.

Mistry was elected to the thirteenth Lok Sabha on a Congress ticket in 2001, in a bye-election from Sabarkantha. He was subsequently re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Sabarkantha in 2004, and served as member on a number of parliamentary committees.

He misplaced the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from the identical constituency, to Mahendrasinh Chauhan of the BJP.

Mistry was chosen for the daunting job of taking up Modi within the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Vadodara however misplaced by an enormous margin.

In 2014, he was nominated to Rajya Saha by the Congress celebration. Mistry has additionally served on many organisational posts of the AICC, incluing as normal secretary in-charge of the politically essential Uttar Pradesh.

Although he has fought many essential political battles however observers regard the problem of conducting AICC presidential polls 22 years after the final contest within the celebration, as probably the most uphill.

Although allegations of uneven taking part in discipline by the Tharoor camp did pose a problem however Mistry together with his deft dealing with has gotten the polls carried out with each candidates accepting the end result and pledging to maneuver on.

Rigorously selecting phrases whereas talking with the media, being transient and never getting drawn into verbal duels have been his strengths which have helped him getting the job carried out for the Congress.