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Shashi Tharoor files nomination for congress chief post

TBP Desk
30 Sep 2022 16:08:46 | Update: 30 Sep 2022 16:26:39
Shashi Tharoor files nomination for congress chief post
Shashi Tharoor visits the grave of Mahatma Gandhi at the Raj Ghat to pay homage before filing his nomination for the position of Congress chief — Courtesy/ Twitter/Shashi Tharoor

Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday filed his nomination for the post of party president at the office of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi, reports The Hindu.

Ahead of filing his nomination, Tharoor visited Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi.

Asked about Sharma, Chavan and Digvijaya Singh being in Kharge’s nomination, Tharoor says,” This tells you a story”. He adds that if the delegates want the status quo, then they must vote for Kharge and if they want to vote for reforms, they must vote for me.

Tharoor said he will go by the assurance of neutrality given by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. 

ALSO READ - Shashi Tharoor set to run for Congress president

Meanwhile, Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge said he is also throwing his hat into the ring. "I am going to file my nomination (for Congress president post)", Kharge told media persons as he left for the AICC headquarters.

Kharge filed his nomination in the presence of Ashok Gehlot, Anand Sharma, and Prithviraj Chavan among others.

Sharma and Chavan are members of the ginger group or G-23 that has written to Sonia Gandhi for internal reforms. Tharoor was also a signatory to the 2020 letter.

Among the proposers for Kharge includes G-23 leaders like Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan and Anand Sharma. Other senior leaders are proposers A K Antony Ashok Gehlot, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken and Salman Khurshid among others.

After filing the nomination, Kharge said "I thank senior leaders from all states for supporting me in the Congress presidential election."

The Congress leader stated, "I appeal to all delegates to vote for me in the Congress presidential election."

Kharge said, "I am fighting for a big change."

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi also filed his nomination for the party's topmost position and said that "the decision of party leaders is respected". "I belong to a farmer's family. The country is seeing that son of a farmer who has experience of serving with the Indian Air Force, minister in state government and elected as deputy leader of Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, can also contest for the post of AICC president," Tripathi had said before filing his nominations today.

Earlier, Digvijaya Singh and Ashok Gehlot stated that they had dropped out of the race.

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister visited Kharge at his residence this morning. "I told him that I stand by him and can't even think of contesting against him, I will be his proposer," Singh told reporters.

Congress MP Deepender S Hooda also said: "I welcome Mallikarjun Kharge's nomination for Congress president post and have the confidence that he will get elected. Over the years, he has raised the voice of the people in Parliament. I've signed his nomination papers as a proposer."

Meanwhile, Gehlot had on Thursday said he is pulling out of the contest after he met with Sonia Gandhi and apologised to her for the ruckus in Rajasthan triggered by his loyalists over a possible leadership change in the state after Gehlot was set to file his nomination papers for the Congress chief polls.

Nominations for the post of Congress president close at 3:00pm and results will be declared on October 19. With the Gandhis not running for the top post this time around, the grand old party is all set to get a non-Gandhi president after over 25 years.

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