NEW DELHI: Shashi Tharoor may have lost the election for the post of Congress president, but it can be said that the Thiruvananthapuram MP has won the hearts of many. While his opponent Mallikarjun Kharge secured victory with 7,897 votes, Tharoor secured 1,072 votes. Some interesting stories are behind the 416 invalid votes.

One of the invalid votes had a heart and arrow drawn in the column next to Tharoor's name. Another had a tick next to Tharoor's name and a swastika next to Kharge's name. Sources in the Tharoor camp say that this is a symbol of dilemma between the voter's own will and God's will.

Tharoor's supporters are elated to have secured 12 per cent of the total votes polled. As per their conclusion, he got more votes from Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. If Kharge had not been accompanied by senior leaders when he went to submit his nomination paper, the outcome would have been very different. Tharoor's supporters responded that no one can sideline him from the party now.