Shashi Tharoor calls on Mallikarjun Kharge after poll results

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called on party president-elect Mallikarjun Kharge after losing to him in the battle for the top post, and offered his full cooperation going forward.

Kharge was on Wednesday elected the Congress president after defeating Tharoor in the electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history. Kharge got 7,897 votes and Shashi Tharoor 1,072 votes, while 416 votes were declared invalid.

''Called on our new President-elect Mallikarjun Kharge to congratulate him & offer him my full co-operation. Congress has been strengthened by our contest,'' Tharoor tweeted along with pictures of his meeting with Kharge.

In one of the pictures, he held Kharge's arm aloft with Congress MP Karti Chidambaram also in the photograph.