New Delhi: Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge would join the race for the party's top position today, when the Leader of Opposition in the Raja Sabha is expected to submit his nomination, source said.
The contest for the top post will then be expected to be between Kharge, Digvijaya Singh and Shashi Tharoor, source said. Today at 3 p.m., nominations for the position of Congress President conclude. The results will be announced on October 19.
According to the sources, "Kharge is expected to file his nomination with one group of Gandhi supporters contacting him to run in the elections, but the final decision will be made shortly." The great old party is about to elect a non-Gandhi president after more than 25 years thanks to the Gandhis' decision not to compete for president this time around.
Prior to his decision to withdraw after meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was expected to be the front-runner in the contest. Speaking to reporters in the nation's capital following the encounter, Gehlot said he had apologised to her for the situation that was developing in the state due to his supporters.
Veteran Congressman Digvijaya Singh said that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty will continue to be the party's leadership after announcing his intention to run in the 2019 Congress presidential elections. Sources claim that Manish Tewari, a representative of the G-23 group of party reformers, is also considering submitting his name for the top position. The G-23 leaders met at Anand Sharma's house on Thursday night. former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, and former Union Minister Manish Tewari, were among the participants in the meetings.
The leaders reportedly discussed the entire situation that was developing in the lead-up to the Congress presidential elections. The two will convene once more.
Manish Tewari remarked as he left Anand Sharma's house, "Nobody has filed a nomination yet. Once it is done, there will be contemplation. The democratic process has begun. BS Hooda, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan and I sat for deliberation and discussed the things.
In response to a query that if G-23 would support any of the candidates whose names have so far been submitted for the Congress presidential election, Tewari responded, "Days pass between collecting, filing, and withdrawing nomination papers. The decision will be made at that time. In English, it is called politics 'it is the preponderance of probabilities, and let us watch what happens tomorrow."
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