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Shashi Tharoor meets Congress chief Sonia Gandhi after his 'I endorse...' post
A new Congress chief will be chosen next month and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor is expected to be a candidate; earlier this month the ex union minister refused to confirm or deny rumours.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor - who this month refused to rule himself out of running for the post of party president - met interim chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Monday afternoon, hours after he endorsed a petition by younger members of the party seeking 'constructive reforms' in the Congress.
The Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram tweeted 'I am happy... to go beyond' and pledged support to the Congress' Udaipur NavSankalp Declaration, which express a commitment to free-and-fair internal elections.
The petition had over 650 signature at the time he posted it on Twitter.
"I welcome this petition that is being circulated by a group of young Congress members, seeking constructive reforms in the Party. It has gathered over 650 signatures so far. I am happy to endorse it and to go beyond it," he said.
He did not disclose what transpired during the meeting with Sonia Gandhi.
Shashi Tharoor is part of the G-23 - a group of leaders who have pressed for leadership and structural changes after a series of electoral defeats.
The G-23 has also been critical of the Gandhis - which has triggered internal strife and led, directly or otherwise, to poll defeats and big names leaving to join the BJP. Ex Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh - who quit in November after the Gandhis backed rival Navjot Sidhu in their public spat - is the latest.
READ | Amarinder Singh meets Nadda in Delhi, to join BJP today
Another prominent face - Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was also a G-23 member - quit last month after a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi; he called his behaviour 'immature' and 'childish' and said he had 'demolished' the consultative process.
READ | Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress, resigns from all party posts
Meanwhile, strident calls for an election to decide on a 'full-time' president - a key demand of the G-23 - have prompted the party to (finally) announce polls.
A new Congress chief will be chosen next month and Tharoor is expected to be a candidate. Earlier this month he refused to confirm or deny such speculation.
READ | 'Neither in nor out': Tharoor on contesting for Cong president post
He did, however, write in a Malayalam paper that there was no reason 'another person' could not be elected. He also told news agency PTI ‘I only welcomed the fact an election will be held… I believe that is very good for the party’.
With input from PTI
