A "surprise" candidate with the backing of the Congress central leadership is likely to file nomination for party president election on Friday as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot bowed out of the race taking moral responsibility for the Jaipur 'rebellion'.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik top the list of surprise candidates. The entry of a third candidate would mean that Digvijaya Singh, who collected the nomination papers, and Shashi Tharoor do not have Gandhi family’s backing in the elections.
Kharge is likely the frontrunner to get the backing of Gandhi family in the Congress presidential election.
Sonia will discuss this with senior leaders on Friday morning.
The development came following a denouement in the Rajasthan episode after a 100-minute meeting Gehlot had with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, days after MLAs refused to attend a meeting of Congress Legislature Party in Jaipur to initiate a process to find a successor to CM Gehlot.
Gehlot said he explained to Sonia his “hurt” over the Jaipur episode when his MLAs boycotted the meeting protesting against the leadership's "intention" to install Sachin Pilot as his successor.
Pilot also met Sonia late on Thursday evening.
Sonia made it clear to Gehlot that she was "very unhappy" with the developments as she herself had suggested that Gehlot succeed her as Congress chief. She was not impressed by his arguments while he made it clear that it would not be proper to install Pilot who rebelled against his government in 2020.
Before Gehlot’s meeting, Digvijaya Singh came to Congress headquarters and collected 10 sets of nomination papers. Asked whether he would withdraw from the race if he does not have the support of Gandhi family, he said he collected the papers to contest the poll and one should take him seriously.
(Published 30 September 2022, 02:32 IST)
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