Mallikarjun Kharge or Shashi Tharoor as Congress party chief? Voting ends, results on Oct 19

New Delhi, Oct 17: The voting for the much-anticipated Congress presidential election has ended on Monday as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor faced-off for the post of AICC chief. The Congress presidential election took place for the sixth time in the party's 137-year history.

The results of the election will be declared on October 19. Kharge is seen as the favourite for the party top post, but his opponent Tharoor has said he is confident of a positive result.

Over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates form the electoral college to pick the party chief in a secret ballot as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are in the race to occupy the party's top post.

Many leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have cast their votes.

When media asked Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi over the poll, she said, "I have been waiting for a long time for this thing,".

The poll for the Congress president post was last held in 2000 in which Sonia Gandhi was pitched against Jitendra Prasada. In the election, Sonia bagged 7,448 of the 7,700 votes while Prasada managed to get only 94. The remaining votes were invalid or not polled.