Less than 10 delegates were present on Thursday afternoon at the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee office when Shashi Tharoor, one of the candidates for the party president’s post, went to campaign for himself. Delhi has 272 delegates who will vote in the presidential election.

Instead of accepting this as lack of support for his candidature, Tharoor kicked up a ruckus over a level playing field, creating an impression that entrenched forces in the party were manipulating the election in favour of the other candidate, Mallikarjun Kharge. Over 250 delegates were present when Kharge visited the Delhi Congress office a few days ago.

Tharoor explained this difference, saying: “We have seen this at several PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) offices. When Kharge goes, all the senior leaders are present, delegates come in large numbers. Delegates are told by the state leaders to be present. This never happened in my case. This is why I am saying there is no level playing field.”

Asked if he was asked by leaders not to attend Tharoor’s meeting, a delegate from Delhi told The Telegraph: “I got a call from Tharoor’s residence for the meeting. Nobody else called me. I decided not to go because I don’t support his candidature. I went to Kharge’s meeting because I prefer him to Tharoor. This is the Congress; party workers know what is to be done. Nobody has to pressurise us.”

Tharoor has angered large sections of senior leaders by joining the fray and deepened anxieties by statements that have been viewed as reckless. A senior leader said: “Who is Tharoor? How did he presume he could be the Congress president? We are toiling in the party for 30-40 years. He came in 2009 and contested the Lok Sabha election straightaway. Now he wants to lead us. Even G-23 (a cabal of rebels), which he was a part of, refused to support him because there were many veterans in that group.”

Another Delhi delegate said: “Some of us discussed among ourselves and decided not to go. Kharge is being portrayed as the official candidate by the media. But has anybody asked us who we prefer? Our leaders proposed Kharge’s name while nobody was present when Tharoor filed his nomination. The message was from the entire party, not from the Nehru-Gandhi family. The majority support to Kharge is an outcome of consensus among senior leaders while we have never interacted with Tharoor. How can he all of a sudden become our leader?”

The story is the same in most states.

A senior leader from Maharashtra said over the phone: “We could have been in a dilemma if Ashok Gehlot or Digvijaya Singh was in the fray against Kharge. Tharoor is not a choice. Did he consult us before filing his nomination? Even Kharge didn’t consult us but our leaders decided he was the better option. That’s it. We all rallied behind Kharge. We can’t relate to Tharoor; the big leaders in the party too indicated their choice on some basis. Politics is all about networking.”

Leaders associated with Kharge’s campaign argued that they were not at fault if Tharoor doesn’t enjoy the support of party workers. “We have been to 14-15 states. Delegates are coming for our meeting. We are organising these meetings. Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi are not calling the delegates. What should we do, tell the delegates to attend Tharoor’s meeting to ensure he doesn’t make wild allegations about level playing field? We are compelled to say that Tharoor lacks political maturity and doesn’t know the Congress,” a leader said.

Those involved in the election process also conceded that Congress central election authority head Madhusudan Mistri was unusually strict and had been threatened strong action for any violation of his directives. Four PROs (pradesh returning officers) were sacked for proposing Kharge’s name. “We were told to stay away from the campaign. We were involved in electing PCC delegates. Some of them are calling us to ask for our choice. We are telling them to choose from the two candidates on their own. Our job is to conduct free and fair elections,” a PRO said.

Mistri has unveiled a foolproof plan for fair election and counting, in addition to declaring that voting will happen through secret ballot and nobody should fear any political reprisal. All the ballot boxes will be sealed after voting and opened for counting in the presence of the representatives of the candidates. The seal will contain the signatures of the representatives.