Cong Prez poll: Gandhi family loyalist Kidwai among proposers for Tharoor's nomination

Gandhi family loyalist Mohsina Kidwai, senior Kashmir leader Saifuddin Soz, at least three sitting MPs, including Karti Chidambaram, and former MP Sandeep Dikshit were among those who have signed as proposers for Shashi Tharoor’s bid for Congress president election.

One of the surprise signatories was Kidwai, who is considered close to the Gandhis for decades and she signed the nomination papers only on Friday, as it became clear that senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge has the backing of the Gandhi family though it has publicly maintained that they were taking a “neutral stand”.

Kidwai had never joined the G-23 leaders to question the leadership though Tharoor was one of the signatories of the letter to Sonia seeking clarity on the leadership question.

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Veteran Kashmir leader Saifuddin Soz is another loyalist who chose to support Tharoor, but he signed the papers on September 25 itself along with his son Salman Soz. This appears to be marking Soz’s falling out with the Gandhi family, after the exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son and former MP Sandeep Dikshit, a signatory of the G-23 letter but who came out in open against Azad’s resignation letter, is another leader who has signed.

The sitting MPs who signed the nomination papers are Karti Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu), M K Raghavan (Kerala) and Pradyut Bordoloi (Assam). Hibi Eden, an MP from Kerala who was handpicked by Rahul Gandhi as NSU(I) president, also announced support by sharing Tharoor’s picture on Facebook with emoticons.

Sharing the details of proposers, Tharoor said he has got proposers from 12 states and from those at all levels of leadership. “I thank them and the thousands of workers they represent for the faith they have placed in me. Thanks, my Parliamentary colleagues, for your unwavering support,” he tweeted.

Another interesting supporter of Tharoor was Anil K Antony, the son of senior leader AK Antony who was the first signatory of Kharge’s nomination.

Anil, who is a national co-coordinator of Congress social media and digital communications cell, tweeted, “Irrespective of the outcome, the message of change & standing for the pluralistic idea of India that Shashi Tharoor advocates for is a must for any prospective Congress revival. Proud to call him one of my mentors. Wish you the very best as you take this significant step.”

There were at least 13 proposers for Tharoor from Kerala which included Thampanoor Ravi, a close aide of Oommen Chandy, former MLA K Sabarinath and senior leader K C Abu. Besides Kerala, Tharoor also got proposers from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Jharkhand, Punjab, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland.

Karti tweeted, “I am privileged to be one of the 60 Congress delegates who signed the nomination form of Shashi Tharoor. We need to usher in bold new thinking and action into our party’s functioning.”

Bordoloi said Congress can never become a dinosaur because we have forward looking leaders who can hold the core ideology aloft with new ideas and new aspirations like a whiff of fresh air. Referring to a galaxy of leaders signing Kharge’s nomination papers, he said, “they are the Who's Who of the 'Rajas' and we are just the 'Ranks ( commoners)'!”