NEW DELHI The leadership battle in India's main opposition Congress party was Monday muddied by reports that elections to choose the next president were stage-managed to return Sonia Gandhi for a second term.
According to newspapers, some Congress leaders admitted on condition of anonymity that supporters of Gandhi, 53, a scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, had taken underhand measures to ensure her overriding victory in Sunday's ballot.
Gandhi's challenger, Jitendra Prasada, 62, who is widely tipped to lose badly, has also made the same allegations.
One senior Congress official said that party members' votes were identifiable and therefore anyone who voted against Gandhi might be deterred from doing so fearing possible recriminations.
"Both the ballot and the counterfoil were marked; the delegates were asked to sign on the counterfoil so that they could be recognized," he was quoted by AFP as saying in remarks published by the Pioneer daily onMonday.
"After all these (things), few people will dare come out and vote for Prasada," he said.
The balloting attracted a huge turnout despite clashes between rival supporters in some places, including the southern state of Tamil Nadu where two of Prasada's election agents had to be hospitalized with severe injuries.
More than 90 percent of the party's estimated 8,000-strong electoral college voted with the ballot papers being brought to New Delhi under tight security. The results are due out on Wednesday.
Indian newspapers on Monday ran riot with the fact that several high-profile Congress leaders, including New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, had openly flouted electoral norms.
Dixit posed for photographers with her ballot in which she had marked her vote in favor of Gandhi.
Ram Niwas Mirdha, a senior Congress member overseeing the current elections, created waves on the eve of polling Saturday by claiming that there had been major shortcomings in the run up to the vote.
He said it was because the Congress had not "gone by the rules.
On Sunday, however, Mirdha changed tack saying he was "reasonably satisfied" with the entire process but added a note of caution saying: "It was a gigantic exercise and there may have been shortcomings." The Nehru-Gandhi family, which has given India three prime ministers, has had a stranglehold over the 115-year-old Congress.
Sonia Gandhi is the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated by a Tamil woman suicide bomber in 1991.
The reclusive Italian-born leader was forced to enter active politics and take on the mantle of party president three years ago.
Prasada has said previously he entered the electoral fray to revitalize the party with a call for more decentralization and direct contact with grass-roots workers.
He has accused Gandhi of living in an ivory tower, being advised by a small coterie and being out of touch with reality. Analysts say while Gandhi's win is a forgone conclusion, it is the margin of her victory which will be important, as it could either help her consolidate her position or give rise to further divisions.
Gandhi's image had already been dented after three senior Congress leaders questioned her leadership, leading to their ouster. They then set up a new political party.