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Decided to contest on advice of well-wishers: Kharge
Kharge is set for a faceoff with fellow veteran Shashi Tharoor, a G-23 member, for the first open Congress presidential contest in 21 years on October 17
LUCKNOW Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, who has promised that if elected the Congress chief, he would ensure 50% party posts to those below 50 years, arrived in Lucknow for his campaign where he denied the accusations of him being a runaway favourite as he enjoyed the tacit support of the powerful Gandhi family.
Kharge is set for a faceoff with fellow veteran Shashi Tharoor, a G-23 member, for the first open Congress presidential contest in 21 years, on October 17.
Kharge arrived at the UP Congress Committee (UPCC) headquarters in Lucknow to seek support of party delegates. Of the 9,300 delegates who would vote nationally in these elections, a little over 1,200 are in UP. Tharoor had spiced up the contest by claiming in Delhi that many electors were instructed by ‘their leaders’ to support his rival.
“Despite this, “they” would eventually end up voting for me in a secret ballot,” Tharoor later added.
Yet, Kharge, a powerful Dalit leader of the Congress who has spent 51 of the 55 years of his political career occupying constitutional posts, denied the talk. “I don’t know why he (Tharoor) is saying so. People have known me for 55 years, and on that basis they would support me,” he said. Tharoor had claimed that Kharge was incapable of providing the change the grand old party, currently in the midst of a prolonged spell of electoral losses, desertions, turmoil and dissidence, needed.
“Nowhere have I said that Sonia Gandhi ji has asked me to contest these elections. I decided to contest on the advice of my well-wishers in the party after the Gandhi family decided against contesting. I am confident of the support of the over 9,300 delegates,” he said.
Tharoor had also been suggesting that people would be in for a surprise when votes of the Congress presidential contest are counted on October 19, thereby implying it would be no repeat of 1997 when Sitaram Kesri, considered a family loyalist, won in a triangular contest against heavyweights Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot and of 2000 when Jitendra Prasad suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of Sonia Gandhi.
“Such stories are planted by those out to defame Sonia Gandhi ji, me and the Congress party,” Kharge said replying to queries on whether it would end up in a “lopsided win” due to his perceived proximity with the Gandhi family.
