Congress president polls: Kharge, Tharoor, Tripathi file nominations

The stage was set yesterday for a three-way race for the post of President of India's main opposition party Congress with senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor and KN Tripathi filing their nominations for the October 17 elections to decide who will replace Sonia Gandhi.

More than 9,100 Congress delegates are eligible to cast their votes in the October 17 election. The result will be announced on October 19.

As things stand, 80-year-old Kharge appears emerging a favourite as he is thought to be enjoying the tacit blessings of the Gandhi family.

What has further strengthened Kharge's candidature is that his nomination papers were signed by a number of members from the Group of 23 leaders comprising Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari and Bhupinder Hooda who have called for organizational changes.

Kharge is a hardcore loyalist of the Gandhi family. If elected, he will be the second AICC president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa, and also a Dalit leader to hold the post after Jagjivan Ram.

Tharoor, 66, was also a part of G-23 but it seems he has been left by his group colleagues to cut a lonely furrow as none of them endorsed his nomination papers filed on the last day of nomination filing yesterday.

This would be the first time a person from outside the Gandhi clan would head the grand old party after a long hiatus.

The Gandhi family did not go on record to convey its favourite candidate among the three.  Neither Sonia nor Rahul Gandhi nor Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was present when the three candidates filed nomination papers because they did not want to be publicly seen as taking sides.

But Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, considered close to the Gandhi family, said yesterday that all senior leaders had decided to back Kharge.

"All senior leaders have together decided on Kharge's candidature," Gehlot told reporters in New Delhi.

Tharoor, who was also part of the G-23 group, filed five sets of nomination papers while Tripathi filed a single set of poll papers with Madhusudan Mistry, the chairman of the Congress's Central Election Authority.

Tharoor said he has a vision to strengthen the Congress which should be a vehicle for "change."