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Shashi Tharoor arrives in Hyderabad but state leaders avoid meet
Several Congress leaders in Telangana have openly expressed support to senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also contesting the election.
Hyderabad: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday said a reimagined party is needed to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party, even as he visited Hyderabad in connection with his campaign for the election of the Congress president.
Several Congress leaders in Telangana have, however, openly expressed support to senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also contesting the election. As Tharoor landed in Hyderabad on Sunday night to lobby for himself for the October 17 poll, no member of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee received him, people aware of the matter said.
On Monday morning, Tharoor ruled out any ideological difference with Kharge. “Let me make clear that I agree with Kharge ji that all of us in the Congress wish to take on the BJP rather than each other. There is no ideological difference between us. The choice for our voting colleagues Oct17 is only on how to do it most effectively,” Tharoor tweeted.
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The tweet came a day after Kharge, who has resigned as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha to contest the party poll, said that he conveyed to Tharoor that a consensus candidate would be better, but the Lok Sabha MP insisted on a contest for the “sake of democracy”.
Tharoor said he has “enormous” respect for his rival Kharge. “I believe we need a reinvented, reimagined Congress to take on the BJP. That’s why I have continued with my candidacy in this election,” he told reporters in Hyderabad. The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he would not withdraw from the contest despite his respect for Kharge as that would amount to betrayal of many colleagues who urged him to contest.
Also read: Congress presidential poll is about how to take on BJP effectively: Tharoor
On “G-23 group”, he said it was a “media creation”. Recalling past developments on that matter, he said a couple of senior leaders had written to the party high command on the desired reforms. Due to the Covid-induced lockdown in 2020, he said only 23 people were available to affix their signatures, backing them. “That’s why 23 signed. It could have been 100. It could have been less, it could have been more. These were the people who were available to sign,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
