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Gehlot hints at twin role in Cong as Tharoor meets party’s poll panel chief | Top points
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who has hinted to enter the fray to become the next Congress president, met Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday in Delhi. He, however, said that he will make one last-ditch effort to convince Rahul Gandhi to take up the job of Congress president again.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is reported to be in the race to become the next party president, met its central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Wednesday. The veteran politician enquired about the nomination formalities with Mistry who assured Tharoor of the upcoming election being free, fair and open
Tharoor's meeting with Mistry comes a day before the Congress party issues a notification for the presidential elections scheduled next month.
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Mistry said Tharoor enquired on the voters' list, election agent and filing of the nomination. “He (Tharoor) will be sending a person on (September) 24th to collect the (nomination) forms. He was satisfied,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
The election authority chief said his meeting with the Congress MP primarily focused on the latter's queries pertaining to formalities for filing of nomination.
The meeting comes on a day when Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath in Delhi, hours after hinting at his entering the fray to become the next party president.
During the meeting, Sonia told Gehlot that she will remain neutral and not take any sides in the forthcoming elections and not give her personal approval to anyone.
According to sources cited by news agency ANI, Gandhi also told Gehlot that the principle of ‘one person, one post’ will come up when the candidate is finalised and wins. Gehlot is reportedly reluctant to cede his chief ministership to Sachin Pilot, with whom the former does not particularly share a good relation.
The CM had held a late-night meeting with his MLAs in Jaipur on Tuesday, before turning up at Sonia Gandhi’s residence on Wednesday morning.
Gehlot has reportedly said the Congress' ‘one person, one post’ formula is only applicable when the high command nominates someone.
Earlier in the day, Pilot was seen with Congress MP and former party president Rahul Gandhi as their ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ entered Kochi in Kerala, where he said that the average Congress workers want the latter to lead from the front.
Mistry told PTI that being on a certain post does not stop one from contesting elections, and the party constitution states that any delegate can enter the fray.
The Rajasthan CM will fly to Kochi on Thursday to meet Rahul Gandhi and join the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. He said that he will make one last-ditch effort to convince the Congress MP to take up the role of party president again.
“I am fortunate that Congressmen across the country have faith, love, and trust in me...that is why I will not be able to say no…wherever they will say...if they ask me to file nomination, I will do so. I have been given responsibility as chief minister, which I am fulfilling and will continue to,” Gehlot said.
The Congress is likely to see polls for the post of its chief in over two decades. The process for filing nominations will be held between September 24 and 30, while the last date of withdrawal of the same is October 8. The election, in case there are multiple candidates, will take place on October 17 and the results will be announced on October 19.
(With agency inputs)
