Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor and KN Tripathi filing their nomination for the post of the Congress party chief at AICC headquarters on Friday. (Express)Indian National Congress (INC) president Elections 2022 LIVE Updates: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who filed his nomination for the post of party president on Friday, said he was fighting for a big change in the party. He also appealed to all delegates to vote for him. “I thank senior leaders from all states for supporting me in the Congress presidential election,” Kharge told reporters at the AICC office after filing his nomination. His candidature was proposed by party leaders Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, AK Antony, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Mukul Wasnik.
Having filed nomination papers for the post of Congress president, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor Friday framed the contest between him and party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge as a choice between “change” represented by him and continuation of status quo and business and usual by Kharge. While calling Kharge the Bhishma Pitamah of Congress, he said the veteran is seen as the candidate of continuity. A bevy of top AICC leaders led by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, A K Antony, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, several CWC members and AICC office bearers, including Ajay Maken and Tariq Anwar, signed as proposers on the three sets of nomination papers filed by Kharge, sending a clear signal that he is the unofficial establishment candidate.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, meanwhile, called Mallikarjun Kharge a “proxy” for the Gandhi family, in a tweet. “After (Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok) Gehlot lost favour with Parivar (Gandhis), now 80-year-old Mallikarjun Kharge ji becomes the chosen remote controlled ‘proxy’ candidate, who is projected as an ‘official candidate’, contrast his nomination with Tharoor’s lacklustre one. Isn’t it clear the match is fixed for Kharge,” Poonawalla said.
While the legislators on the CM’s side have been vocal, those in the Pilot camp have not yet publicly commented on the tussle. (Express Photo)
After major upheavals leading up to the nomination for the post of the Congress president, senior Congress leader Mallikharjun Kharge — whose name cropped up at the last minute — filed his nomination papers Friday. With this, he joins the contest with Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and Jharkhand MLA K N Tripathi. Kharge received 14 sets of nominations in his favour, while Tharoor received five and Tripathi one.
Party veteran Digvijaya Singh, who expressed his interest for the organisation’s top post and had also picked up the nomination papers, confirmed he was pulling out of the race. He was among Kharge’s proposers. Those who proposed his name include senior leaders, former Chief Ministers and sitting legislators from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, home state Karnataka and Puducherry. Vidhatri Rao reports
Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly, Gulab Chand Kataria, on Friday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders will sit together and decide whether they need to approach a court regarding the pending resignations of Congress MLAs. “If we have to knock the door of the court, we will sit and decide together as a party,” Kataria told The Indian Express. “As per the rules of the Rajasthan Assembly, an MLA expressing desire to resign before the Speaker is sufficient enough,” he said.
Annoyed over Congress high command’s ‘unilateral’ decision to opt for a new chief minister without consulting them, around 90 MLAs had skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet and submitted their resignation to Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi late on September 25. However, the resignations have been pending with Joshi since then. Hamza Khan writes
Setting up a contest to decide a new Congress president after a gap of 22 years, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor Friday filed their nomination papers for the election on October 17. With the deadline ending for filing nominations, their move also confirmed the elevation of a non-Gandhi family member to the top post after nearly two-and-a-half decades.
With almost the entire top brass of the AICC rallying behind him, Kharge emerged as the unofficial establishment candidate and Tharoor the challenger. The third candidate in the fray is former Jharkhand minister K N Tripathi. With around 9,100 PCC delegates eligible to cast their votes, the counting will be held on October 19. Manoj C G reports
Setting up a contest to decide a new Congress president after a gap of 22 years, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor Friday filed their nomination papers for the election on October 17. With the deadline ending for filing nominations, their move also confirmed the elevation of a non-Gandhi family member to the top post after nearly two-and-a-half decades.
With almost the entire top brass of the AICC rallying behind him, Kharge emerged as the unofficial establishment candidate and Tharoor the challenger. The third candidate in the fray is former Jharkhand minister K N Tripathi. With around 9,100 PCC delegates eligible to cast their votes, the counting will be held on October 19. Manoj CG reports
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor will visit the Deekshabhoomi monument here on Saturday and start his campaign for the party president's election. Tharoor will pay his tributes at Deekhabhoomi, where Dr B R Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with his followers in 1956, on Saturday, said Maharashtra Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh.
Deshmukh has organized the Thiruvananthapuram MP's visit here. Tharoor filed his nomination for the Congress president's election in Delhi earlier in the day. On Sunday he will visit Mahatma Gandhi's Sewagram Ashram at Wardha and Vinoba Bhave's Ashram at Pawnar, Deshmukh told PTI. (PTI)
Several titans entered and exited and two were left standing at the end of nominations for the Congress president’s post on Friday. And then there was K N Tripathi. The former Congress MLA and ex-minister from Jharkhand popped up out of nowhere to join the race, though no one is sure he will get very far.
Back in Jharkhand, about the only time Tripathi, 45, made news was during the 2019 Assembly elections, when as the Congress candidate from Daltonganj, he brandished guns after supporters of the BJP candidate allegedly surrounded him in Koshiyara village of the constituency. Abhishek Angad writes
Having filed nomination papers for the post of Congress president, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor Friday framed the contest between him and party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge as a choice between “change” represented by him and continuation of status quo and business and usual by Kharge. While calling Kharge the Bhishma Pitamah of Congress, he said the veteran is seen as the candidate of continuity.
A bevy of top AICC leaders led by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, A K Antony, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, several CWC members and AICC office bearers, including Ajay Maken and Tariq Anwar, signed as proposers on the three sets of nomination papers filed by Kharge, sending a clear signal that he is the unofficial establishment candidate. Manoj CG writes
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gandhi’s meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday ended with his profuse apologies to her, his withdrawal from the party president’s race, and suspense over his continuation as CM. However, photos of a note he carried into the meeting show he had come fully prepared to put across his side of the story.
The note with its pointers, which included expression of regret to Sonia, was captured by Malayala Manorama photographer Suresh Jayaprakash. Read more
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The Grand Old Party has a knack for scripting soap operas on the fly. It calls for great creative screenplay writing skills. While it may or may not deliver electoral success, unbridled entertainment is usually assured. Nothing else can explain the roller-coaster bumpy ride that was engineered by the current Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot.
Putatively favoured by the Congress High Command as the potential Congress president, the avaricious Gehlot wanted to kill two birds with one stone. The supposedly canny politician wanted both the coveted positions (he dreads Sachin Pilot’s brio and charisma will obliterate his legacy in the desert state) but bit more than he could chew. Dumped unceremoniously by Sonia Gandhi for instigating an internal rebellion in his own party in Rajasthan in an atrocious manifestation of political naivete, Gehlot’s departure created a conundrum. Who, then, could be a more compliant compromised candidate? With Shashi Tharoor publicly stating his intention for the top job, the choice of a suitable lame-duck status quoist had clearly narrowed down to the usual suspects — Mallikarjun Kharge, Mukul Wasnik, Digvijay Singh, etc. Not surprisingly, despite the melodramatic cameo appearance of Digvijay Singh, it is Kharge who has emerged as the “unofficial official” candidate of the Congress. It is a missed opportunity of gargantuan proportions. Sanjay Jha writes
An initial version of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s manifesto for the upcoming elections for party president showed a distorted map of India, with parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh omitted from it. His office later corrected the omission, and a fresh version now includes the official map of India.
Tharoor’s manifesto includes ‘ten tenets’ to ‘revitalise’ Congress. These include decentralisation, ‘reimagining’ the role of AICC, broadening participation, ‘reinvigorating’ election management, and increased focus on youth. On page four of the manifesto, under decentralisation, a distorted version of India’s map was printed. The Thiruvananthapuram MP filed his nomination papers for presidential candidature on Friday morning. Others in the race include veteran leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh and K N Tripathi. Currently, Kharge, 80, is being seen as the favourite to win the election. Read more
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday asserted that he has a vision to strengthen the party which should be a vehicle for "change" as he filed his nomination for the party president poll. Addressing a press conference after filing his papers, the former Union minister called his rival Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also contesting and is being seen as the favourite to win, 'Bhishma Pitamah' of the Congress.
"It is a friendly contest that is going to happen. We are not enemies or rivals. No disrespect to him but I will represent my ideas," the articulate and savvy Kerala MP told reporters. Tharoor called Kharge, 80, a "candidate of continuity", an apparent reference to the impression that the Karnataka leader is the choice of the Gandhis. (PTI)
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday released a 10-point manifesto for the upcoming party presidential elections. One of the main points of the manifesto was to decentralise the organisation.
"Every party needs leadership, but at all levels and not just at the top. The Congress must empower the party in the states by giving real authority to the PCC Presidents, decentralize authority and truly empower the grassroots office-bearers of the party. We must provide a credible alternative to the B P's centralization of authority in its party affairs and in the affairs of governance. Re-imagining the organization, delegating powers to state, district and block leaders and empowering grassroots workers will not only free the new leader from the onerous burdens of over-administration, but help create the strong state leadership that in past eras strengthened the Congress' national appeal," the manifesto read.
Congress' Central Election Authority Chariman Madhusudan Mistry on Friday said that 14 forms were submitted by senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, while Shashi Tharoor submitted five and KN Tripathi gave one form, while filing their nomination papers for the upcoming Congress presidential polls. "Tomorrow, we'll scrutinise forms&tomorrow evening we'll announce forms that are valid&names of candidates," Mistry said. (ANI)
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot backs the nomination of Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the upcoming party presidential polls. On Thursday, Gehlot pulled out of the race. (Express/Anil Sharma)
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge filed his nomination for the post of party president on Friday at the AICC heaquarters in New Delhi. Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot were present during the filing of nomination. Kharge said he was fighting for a big change in the party. (Express/Anil Sharma)
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor talks about his reasons for contesting the upcoming Congress presidential polls, his plans for the party, the role of the Gandhi family, and the importance of the poll for the future of the Congress, and says he realises both his strengths and his weaknesses. Excerpts:
The BJP on Friday took a swipe at the Congress after senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge emerged as the favourite to win the poll for party president, suggesting that he will be a "proxy" and "remote-controlled."
"Mallikarjun Kharge at 80 is an inspiring choice for the Congress. He is young, energetic and just what the Congress needed to ensure its revival. He should just pick Dr Manmohan Singh's manual on 'Living by the Remote Control' and it is all sorted," BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said in a tweet. (PTI)
Shashi Tharoor knew it was coming as none of them had come forward to sign his nomination papers. But leading lights of the G-23 such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, and Prithviraj Chavan on Friday sprang a surprise by rallying behind the unofficial “establishment” candidate Mallikarjun Kharge and signing his nomination papers as proposers.
The G-23 — an initial group of 23 leaders who wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking organisational reforms — it seems, has been co-opted by the leadership despite its intermittent private criticism of the style of functioning of All India Congress Committee (AICC) managers and venting of angst. Tharoor in an interview to The Indian Express said that “I am not contesting on G 23’s behalf nor am I seeking an endorsement from them. My candidacy aims to revive the party, not to disrupt it.” Read more
The devout assign a role to destiny in the rise and fall of leaders. Others say it is a combination of various factors — timing, circumstances, diplomacy and craft – apart from, of course, machinations and intrigue. Who else would know it better than Mallikarjun Kharge, the man who lost out in the race for Karnataka Chief Ministership thrice and is now all set to helm the Congress.
The stab of those lost shots at being CM – in 1999, 2004 and 2013 – are known to still hurt the 80-year-old veteran who, despite being a staunch loyalist of the Gandhi family, lost out, respectively, to S M Krishna, his close friend Dharam Singh and Siddaramaiah. Manoj C G writes
Senior Congress leaders including Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, AK Antony, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Mukul Wasnik have officially backed the nomination of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge for the upcoming presidential polls.