The Congress presidential elections are scheduled to be held in just a few weeks on October 17. With the window for filing nominations coming to a close, three prominent leaders of the party filed their nominations on Friday
Members of the Gandhi family will not be running for Congress president. Senior party leader and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced that he would not contest the elections after he met the party's interim chief to discuss the political crisis in Rajasthan on Thursday. After Gehlot bowed out, Digvijaya Singh came to be seen as a probable candidate and even collected the nomination form on Thursday. On Friday he also announced to withdraw from the contest.
Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry told the media that 14 nominations were filed and three names had emerged from them. Mistry, however, said that these three were not the "official" candidates of the Congress, but had filed their nominations on their own.
A formal announcement of the names will be made on Friday after checking the forms.
Here is the list of candidates who have filed nominations for the top post in the Congress:
Shashi Tharoor
Tharoor filed his nomination papers on Friday. "I've a vision for Congress which I'll be sending to all delegates. We are going to seek their support. I'm here to be the voice of all party workers," he said while addressing the media on after filing his nomination.
On Thursday, Tharoor met Digvijaya Singh after he collected the nomination papers. "I welcome his candidacy for the Presidency of our Party. We both agreed that ours is not a battle between rivals but a friendly contest among colleagues," Tharoor tweeted after the meeting.
Mallikarjun Kharge
Senior leader Kharge turned out to be a last-minute surprise when he announced to contest the Congress president polls on Friday. He filed his nomination papers. His candidature is reportedly proposed by senior party leaders including Gehlot, Singh, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, AK Antony, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Mukul Wasnik. Kharge is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Party's interim chief Sonia Gandhi had tasked him to resolve the Rajasthan political crisis early this week.
KN Tripathi
KN Tripathi who has been a minister in the Congress government also filed his nomination papers on Friday. He handed over the nomination papers to Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of the Congress' Central Election Authority, at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry told the media that 14 nominations were filed and three names had emerged from them.
Mistry, however, said that these three were not the "official" candidates of the Congress, but had filed their nominations on their own.
The results for the elections will be declared on October 19.