Madhusudan Mistry: Congs TN Seshan who presided over partys 6th prez polls in its history

Dubbed “Congress T N Seshan” by many party colleagues, AICC central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry presided over the sixth polls in the partys history for electing its chief while deftly navigating through talk of uneven playing field and constant media glare.

Believed to be a trusted man of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Mistry has often been the partys go-to man for daunting assignments, including taking on Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Vadodara.

The election contest between senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor came 22 years after Sonia Gandhi had handed Jitendra Prasada a crushing defeat. The election which was capped by Kharge winning over Tharoor with the former getting 7,897 votes and the latter 1,072 votes, proved to be a long-drawn affair and a tough challenge to meet for Mistry.

Tharoor, who had raised issues of uneven playing field, has also hailed Mistry as “fair-minded” and pointed out that there were “flaws” in the partys system as no such election was held in 22 years.

Mistrys fair-mindedness and scrupulousness are lauded by many in the party.

“Mistry ji is TN Seshan with flowing locks of hair. He has been tough, scrupulous and very demanding of a free, fair and transparent poll,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, comparing Mistry to the former chief election commissioner who was known for being strict and non-partisan.

“I had to get three spokespersons to resign following a directive from him so that they could campaign for one candidate,” Ramesh told

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