Tharoor, Kharge wish each other the best as Cong prez poll sees 96% turnout; all eyes on Oct 19

News Network
October 17, 2022

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New Delhi, Nov 17: Around 9,500 or 96 per cent of 9,915 eligible Congress leaders and workers on Monday cast their vote to the elect a non-Gandhi as party chief for the first time in 22 years, even as the scales were tilted heavily towards veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge against his younger rival Shashi Tharoor.

Among those who voted at various parts of the country included party chief Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and the two candidates among others.

“As per preliminary assessment, 9,497 out of 9,915 PCC delegates who are eligible to vote in the election cast their vote, accounting for 95.78 per cent of the total votes,” Congress’ Central Election Authority Chairperson Madhusudan Mistry told a press conference after the conclusion of voting.

The counting of votes will be held on Wednesday at the AICC headquarters.

There was no adverse incident during Congress presidential polls, Mistry said, adding he has not received any complaints.

Sonia along with Priyanka came to the AICC headquarters to vote. As she moved into the polling booth, Sonia told reporters, "I have been waiting for a long time for this day."

While former Finance Minister P Chidambaram was the first vote in AICC headquarters, others who voted there included Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh and senior leaders Janardhan Dwivedi and Salman Khurshid.

Kharge voted in Bengaluru while Tharoor voted in Thiruvananthapuram. Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal also voted in Thiruvananthapuram.

Both the candidates wished each other the best. Tharoor telephoned Kharge in the morning to "reaffirm my respect for him and our shared devotion to the success of Congress." Kharge tweeted, "my best wishes to Shashi Tharoor. Spoke to him earlier today, both of us are contesting to strengthen Congress to build a stronger and better nation for the future generations."

After the voting, Tharoor tweeted, "My thanks to all the Congress colleagues, workers, delegates across the country who had the courage to participate, to campaign, to dream and to vote today -- whatever the result of this election, it is a victory for you!"

Senior leader Anand Sharma, who was among the 87 leaders who cast their votes at the AICC headquarters said it was a good start and expressed hope that there will be an election to the Congress Working Committee.

Asked about elections to the CWC, Mistry said AICC members will be elected and the new president will take a call on plenary session and next president will take a call on the election of CWC and CEA Members.

He said the party had started its exercise for presidential polls two years ago and it gathered momentum in the last six months.

"The entire process was completed in a democratic manner. Congress once again proven that there is an internal democracy within the party. Other political parties should also take lessons from this," he said.

He emphasised the election was conducted through a secret ballot. Fifty people, including Rahul, voted at the polling booth set up at the Bharat Jodo Yatra camp in Karnataka's Bellary. 

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News Network
November 22,2025

Mangaluru: Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy C H has warned of strict action against individuals spreading rumours and attempting to create insecurity within the Muslim community and fuel hatred between Hindus and Muslims through social media.

Referring to a recent social media post alleging that police personnel had entered a masjid premises to check whether beef was being cooked, the commissioner said miscreants were attempting to push their communal agenda. 

“A group of people, both from Mangaluru and abroad, are trying hard to spread rumours. For the past 10 days, they have been attempting to rake up old issues, highlight routine matters as controversies, or fabricate news altogether,” he said.

He reiterated that any such attempts to disturb communal harmony would invite legal action. “Cases will be registered and the accused will be brought to book,” he stated.

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Agencies
November 22,2025

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New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has again claimed to have solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, repeating his assertion during a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office.

Mamdani flew to Washington DC for his first meeting with Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the meeting, which he described as “great.”

During remarks in the Oval Office, with Mamdani standing next to him, Trump repeated his claim that he solved the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

"I did eight peace deals of countries, including India and Pakistan,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump had said he threatened to put 350 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they did not end their conflict, repeating his claim that he solved the fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called him to say “we're not going to go to war.”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Mamdani emerged victorious in the closely-watched battle for New York City Mayor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months and defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and was officially endorsed by Trump just hours before the elections.

Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.

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News Network
November 22,2025

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The Israeli regime’s forces have killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip every day since the ceasefire began in early October, UNICEF has warned.

The UN children’s agency said on Friday that Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza even though the agreement was meant to stop the killing.

“Since 11 October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip. Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva, reminding that each number in the statistics represents a child whose life had ended violently.

“These are not statistics,” he said. “Each child had a story, a family, and a future that was stolen from them.”

Data from Palestinian factions, human rights groups, and government bodies recorded since the US-brokered ceasefire deal went into effect on October 10 show that Israeli forces have carried out numerous attacks, each constituting a separate ceasefire violation.

UNICEF teams say they repeatedly continue to witness heart-wrenching scenes of fearful Palestinian children sleeping outdoors with amputated limbs, while others live as orphans in flooded, makeshift shelters.

“I saw this myself in August. There is no safe place for them. The world cannot normalize their suffering,” Pires said, lamenting that the UN could “do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster.”

The UNICEF spokesperson warned that with the advent of winter, the risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children will increase.

He warned, “The stakes are incredibly high” for children as winter acts as a threat multiplier, where children have no heating, no insulation, and few blankets. He said respiratory infections rise.

“Too many children have already paid the highest price,” Pires said. “Too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire. The world promised them it would stop and that we would protect them.”

“Now we must act like it,” the UNICEF spokesperson added.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has killed nearly 70,000 people in the territory, most of them women and children, and injured over 170,000 more, while reducing most of the structures in the enclave to rubble.

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