Mallikarjun Kharge shall be competing towards Shashi Tharoor to have a shot on the prime Congress submit
New Delhi:
As Mallikarjun Kharge formally joined the Congress president election by submitting his nomination papers at present, he was flanked by 30 leaders, together with Ashok Gehlot, beforehand the front-runner.
Mallikarjun Kharge’s entry was a last-minute twist after Ashok Gehlot dropped out. The message was delivered to him by KC Venugopal, a trusted chief of the Gandhis.
Although the Gandhis mentioned they might be impartial, Mallikarjun Kharge’s nomination on the Congress workplace made it clear that he has the blessings of the management. His papers had been signed by a galaxy of leaders.
Distinguished amongst them is Ashok Gehlot, who bowed out of the competition yesterday after apologising to Sonia Gandhi over the riot by MLAs loyal to him over reviews that if he ran for celebration president, his rival Sachin Pilot would change him.
Digvijaya Singh, who was all set to file his nomination till Mr Kharge got here into the image, was additionally certainly one of his proposers.
The others embrace AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Deepender S Hooda, Salman Khurshid, V Narayanasamy and Rajiv Shukla.
Mr Kharge additionally obtained assist from leaders of the “G-23” or group of 23 dissenters who wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 calling for large reforms within the celebration, together with elections for prime posts. Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Manish Tewari, probably the most outstanding of dissenters, who had been discussing placing up a candidate, have all come out in assist of the Gandhis-backed candidate.
This, regardless of certainly one of their fellow “dissenters”, Shashi Tharoor, contesting the Congress chief election.
A outstanding title lacking from the record was P Chidambaram.
In distinction, Shashi Tharoor had 10 backers, which is the minimal wanted.
His nomination papers had 50 signatures in comparison with Mr Kharge’s 140.
Mr Tharoor described his opponent because the “Bhishma Pitamah” of the celebration.
“It’s a pleasant contest that’s going to occur. We aren’t enemies or rivals. No disrespect to him however I’ll characterize my concepts,” the Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram instructed reporters.
The Congress closed the nominations at 3pm with three candidates. Aside from Mr Kharge and Mr Tharoor, KN Tripathi additionally filed his papers. Over 9,100 delegates are eligible to forged their votes within the October 17 election. The outcome shall be introduced on October 19.
