With under a month left for long-awaited election for the Congress president, chorus is growing louder in the party for Rahul Gandhi’s elevation to the top post with over half a dozen state units pushing for it amid uncertainty and suspense persisted over whether he would take on the mantle.
After Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat units of the Congress demanded that Gandhi be made party chief, the party’s Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Mumbai units passed resolutions calling for his elevation to the post of president on Monday.
Polling for the Congress president election will take place on October 17 and the results will be announced on October 19.
The Congress party, meanwhile, will be releasing today the list of delegates that make up the electoral college for the party president election.
Five MPs had written to Mistry expressing concern about the ‘transparency and fairness of the party chief’s election, and had sought that the list of PCC delegates that make up the electoral college be provided to all electors and potential candidates’.
Even amid growing chorus for Rahul Gandhi’s elevation to the top post, sources close to the party have confirmed that Shashi Tharoor will contest the election to be the next Congress President as Sonia Gandhi approved his candidature after he reached out to her in a meeting on Monday, news agency ANI reported.
Apart from Shashi Tharoor, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot would reportedly be filing his nomination to contest for the top Congress post on 26 September.
Sources said Sonia Gandhi approved Shashi Tharoor’s candidature, citing he can make internal democracy stronger.
Congress will be releasing the list of delegates today for the party president election. The delegates make up the electoral college or the members who will elect party president.
This comes days after five Congress MPs had written to the party’s internal election body chief, Madhusudan Mistry, expressing concerns about transparency and fairness in the upcoming polls for the president’s post.
The state units are, one after another, also passing resolutions seeking Gandhi’s elevation to the top post.
With inputs from News18
The post Tharoor vs Gehlot for Cong chief, clamour grows for Rahul first appeared on IPA Newspack.
