Shashi Tharoor files nomination for president post of Congress party

Shashi Tharoor today filed his nomination papers for the post of president of India's Congress party which appears set for a person from outside the Nehru-Gandhi clan after a long hiatus.

Tharoor, the lawmaker from Thiruvananthapuram, submitted his nomination to the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry at his office at the party's national headquarters in New Delhi, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The party members will elect their next chief on October 17 and the results would be announced two days later as to who will replace the Congress' interim President Sonia Gandhi.

Another senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge is the other frontrunner in the contest after Digvijaya Singh and Ashok Gehlot dropped out of the race.

While Ashok Gehlot's pulling out of the contest came in the wake of the crisis in the party's Rajasthan unit, and his supporters protesting amid buzz of Sachin Pilot's likelihood of succeeding him as chief minister, Digvijaya Singh said he would be proposer for Kharge, a day after confirming his candidacy. Before filing nomination,

Tharoor paid tributes to India's Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi at their separate memorials.

"Paid tribute to the man who built India's bridge to the 21st century this morning. 'India is an Old country but a young nation… I dream of India Strong, Independent, Self-Reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world, in the service of mankind.' ~ Rajiv Gandhi," Tharoor tweeted.