With the Congress party set to elect its new party president on October 17, senior leader Shashi Tharoor is exploring the possibility of running for the post of Congress president, though he is yet to take a final call on it, media reports said.
This speculation was bolstered by an article Tharoor wrote for the Malayalam daily Mathrabhumi, wherein he called for a "free and fair" election.
In the article, he said that ideally the party should have announced elections also for the dozen seats on the Congress Working Committee (CWC) itself which are supposed to be elected.
"Allowing members of the party drawn from the AICC and PCC delegates to determine who will lead the party from these key positions, would have helped legitimize the incoming set of leaders and give them a credible mandate to lead the party," Tharoor wrote.
Incidentally, Tharoor is a part of the so-called 'G23', the group of 23 senior Congress leaders who were critical of Party President Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress on Sunday announced that the election for its president would be held on October 17. The result will be declared on October 19.
The notification for the election will be issued on September 22, while the filing of nomination would begin on September 24 and continue till September 30.
At the press conference where the party announced the schedule, AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said, "Anybody can contest the election. It is an open election."
The CWC meeting came amid several leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, having publicly exhorted Rahul Gandhi to return as the party chief.
Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in the 2019 parliamentary elections.
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