As the official candidate, Kharge, a Dalit face from Karnataka and leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, is set to become the first non-Gandhi Congress president since 1998-the year Sonia took the top post from Sitaram Kesri before handing it over to Rahul Gandhi in December 2017, who resigned in the wake of the 2019 Lok Sabha debacle. The last date of withdrawal of nomination is October 8, which will decide if there will be a contest on October 17.
As Kharge, Tharoor file papers, it’s clear who has party backing
Congress scrambled to find a replacement choice for the party president’s post from a thin slate of candidates after the leadership’s original choice, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, opted out on Thursday over the controversy created by “loyal” MLAs’ boycott of the legislature party meeting in Jaipur.
Following a flurry of meetings and discussions, as reported by TOI, Mallikarjun Kharge was sounded out late Thursday night. Later, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal visited him to ready his papers for the nomination formalities.
Though Sonia Gandhi has conveyed to all that the “first family” will be neutral in son Rahul’s project to hand over the party reins to a non-Gandhi, and no family member was present during Kharge’s nomination, there was no hiding the fact that the veteran politician has the official imprimatur to succeed the matriarch.
The contrast was evident during the nomination process. Kharge, whose first and third proposer on the form were veteran Gandhi family loyalists A K Antony and Ambika Soni, respectively, was flanked by Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh and a hall full of AICC office-bearers, MPs and state leaders, including the cross-faction endorsement of dissident G23 members like Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda and Prithviraj Chavan. When he handed over the papers to AICC election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, the picture was of celebration and unity. Digvijaya, who had made public his intent to contest, visited Kharge in the morning and announced that he was bowing out in deference to “my senior”.
In contrast, Tharoor, though beaming, was flanked by unknown proposers. He filed five sets of papers. Yet another contestant from Jharkhand, K N Tripathi, also submitted his nomination form.
Kharge underlined the contrast in his brief remarks to reporters post-nomination. “I was encouraged by all leaders, party workers and delegates from key states to contest the elections. I thank those who were present by my side at the time of filing (of nomination papers),” he said.
“I have always been fighting this battle and I am keen to fight more to uphold the ideals of the Congress party with which I have been associated since my childhood,” he said.
Tharoor, while calling Kharge as “Bhishma Pitamah” of the party, dubbed the veteran “candidate of continuity”, and pitched himself as the candidate of change. “It is a friendly contest. No disrespect to him, but I will represent my ideas,” he said.
Undeterred by the underdog status and the overwhelming optics, savvy Tharoor launched a hashtag “Think tomorrow think Tharoor” campaign online, while also presenting a “vision paper”, which he said he will send to all state units to canvass for support. Ahead of filing his nomination papers, Tharoor paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.
