Kharge vs Tharoor: 67 booths set up for Cong prez polls

New Delhi, Oct 9: After the date of withdrawal of nominations for the Congress presidential poll, the party now has two contestants -- Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge -- for the October 17 polls, in which 67 booths have been set up in all the states, the party's central election authority (CEA) has said.

Madhusudan Mistry, Chairman of the CEA, said, "In AICC also there will be a booth, especially for all senior leaders, working committee members and all those whose identity card is from a different state but are staying in Delhi. If they write to us that they want to vote in Delhi then we will make arrangements here as well, they can also vote here in AICC."

A camp booth will be set up for Rahul Gandhi and others who are participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"So the process of campaigning for these candidates starts from Saturday onwards, officially, although they have already started the campaign earlier, because, I mean, they seem to have decided not to withdraw from the contest. Technically, according to the constitution, we have to provide them with a seven day withdrawal period."

The election will take place on October 17 in every state capital. Time is between 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

The vote will be by the secret ballot. All the ballet boxes will be brought to the AICC headquarters and then, on October 19 the counting of votes will start and the result will be declared as soon as the counting gets over.