Cong president poll: K N Tripathi's nomination rejected; Kharge & Tharoor in direct fight

While Kharge submitted 14 forms, Tharoor submitted five and Tripathi one

Former Jharkhand Minister K N Tripathi is out of the Congress presidential race after party’s election authority on Saturday rejected his nomination paper for irregularities. This has set the stage for a direct contest between senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor on October 17, if one of them do not withdraw from the contest.

Congress’ Central Election Authority chairperson Madhusudan Mistry and other members scrutinised 20 forms submitted by Kharge, Tharoor and Tripathi and found four of them defective for various reasons like repetition of proposers, using a xerox copy of nomination paper and mismatch in signatures.

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“We have rejected the form of Tripathi. Kharge and Tharoor remain in the fray and there will be voting on October 17 if none of them withdraws by October 8, the last day for withdrawal of nominations,” Mistry told a press conference. If there is voting, the counting of votes will be on October 19.

Tripathi's form was rejected as the signature of one of his proposers did not match and another proposer's signature was repeated, Mistry said.

Sources said Tripathi had filed one set of nominations on Friday, which was rejected by the election panel while Kharge had filed 14 sets and Tharoor five sets. Sources also said two sets of nomination papers filed by Kharge and one filed by Tharoor were rejected for defects but as their other nominations were in order, they are in the fray.

"Delighted to learn that, following scrutiny, Kharge and I will be squaring off in the friendly contest for President of Congress. May the Party and all our colleagues benefit from this democratic process!" Tharoor tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Kharge met senior leader A K Antony at Kerala House in Delhi before the latter left for Kerala. Sonia had held discussions with Antony and other senior leaders before zeroing in on Kharge after Ashok Gehlot bowed out of the race following the Jaipur rebellion by MLAs supporting him.