Differential treatment to candidates in Congress presidential polls, says Shashi Tharoor

The Thiruvananthapuram MP also indicated differential treatment between him and Mallikarjun Kharge, who is being seen as the party leadership's choice.

Congress has maintained the party is not backing any candidate officially.

Addressing a press conference here, Tharoor said while he is not pointing fingers at Central Election Authority Chairman Madhusudan Mistry, there are flaws in the system.

"I am not saying anything against Mr. Mistry but there are some flaws in the systems which we all know. There have not been elections for 22 years..." said Tharoor.

He said there were discrepancies in the lists of voters provided.

"One list was given earlier, another list was given on Wednesday... Some names were different in the lists, for some names, there was no phone number," he said.

"I am not saying it's being done intentionally. There have not been elections in our party for a long time. So there are issues. I know Mr. Mistry and his team are trying to hold free and fair elections. We are not complaining against them but there are problems with the system," he said.

"That is why I used open mediums to take my message across. I am not sure I will be able to reach everyone before the 17th."

"Another issue is what some leaders did, that is why I said there is no level playing field. At many places, big leaders, and PCC chiefs welcome Kharge ji, and call people for meetings. This happened for only one candidate, not for me," he said.

"Many times when I went to some PCC, the PCC chief became busy on the day...I am not complaining, but do you not see a difference in treatment?"

The Congress internal election will be held on Oct 17 and the counting will be held on Oct 19.