The Congress presidential polls will be a fight between Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge after KN Tripathi’s nomination was rejected.
The race for the Congress president post has now been narrowed down to two candidates after the surprise nomination of former Jharkhand minister KN Tripathi for the top post was rejected by the officials of the party on Saturday.
This means that only two senior leaders have been left standing for the Congress presidential polls, who are Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor. While the Gandhis have refrained from putting up someone from the family for the race, many reports suggest that they have a clear favourite in Kharge.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters here, AICC Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said a total of 20 forms were received during the nomination process and four of them were rejected. While Kharge submitted 14 forms, Tharoor submitted five, and Tripathi one.
Mistry said Tripathi's form was rejected as the signature of one of his proposers did not match and another proposer's signature was repeated. Tripathi was the underdog contender out of the three who had filed his nomination, with the completion mostly surrounding Tharoor and Kharge.
All three candidates had filed their nomination for the Congress presidential elections on Friday, the last day to submit the form. The voting process between the remaining two candidates will take place on October 17, while the announcement of the new party chief will be made on October 19.
Adhering to the Congress party's 'one person, one post rule', Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge resigned on Saturday -- an indication that he is confident of trumping Shashi Tharoor in Congress presidential elections on October 17.
The 80-year-old leader's move has made way for other senior leaders to assume the important role. Even though many names have cropped up since the information of his resignation emerged, P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh are reportedly the frontrunners.
While many party leaders believe that the Gandhi family is backing Kharge for the president post in the party, Mistry has made it clear that Sonia Gandhi will not be supporting any individual candidate in the polls.
(With PTI inputs)
READ | Mallikarjun Kharge resigns as LoP, Digvijaya Singh or P Chidambaram may replace him; tough road ahead for Shashi Tharoor
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 "Congress presidential polls: KN Tripathi ’s nomination rejected, only Tharoor and Kharge left standing")
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