SRINAGAR: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday reached Srinagar in search of support from party delegates in Jammu and Kashmir to win the presidential poll slated for October 17.
He targeted the ruling BJP and said that no one knows how elections for the president’s post in BJP are held.
He also asserted that his contest with Shashi Tharoor for the post of party president was for the betterment of the party and the country and if elected, he would implement the Udaipur Declaration of the party He held interaction with the Congress delegates and leaders in Srinagar and Jammu and put forth his point of view to seek party leader’s support for the top post.
Terming the ongoing presidential election in Congress as an internal matter of the Congress, Kharge said his contest with Shashi Tharoor is for the betterment of the party and the country. “This contest is not about fighting but we are placing our points of view and trying to persuade each other. I will take everybody’s advice and find solutions to issues and problems by discussing them with PCCs and others. It is collective leadership,” he said.
Taking a dig at the BJP, Kharge, former leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said that the presidential elections in BJP are unheard of. “So what right the saffron party has to raise questions about the country’s grand old party Congress?” he asked.
“Congress is the largest democratic party in the country, where elections are held right from booth level to the AICC president. I have risen from the ranks of block president, DCC president PCC president, etc. I remained loyal to the party through thick and thin. In view of my long political experience in the party and government, I shall be able to further strengthen the party at all levels and do justice to the dedicated party workers,” he said.
Kharge said that Congress’ real fight is against the BJP and RSS, who are vitiating the political, democratic and social atmosphere in the country. He alleged that democratic institutions built by Congress in seven decades have been weakened and voices of dissent are being muzzled and crushed by the Modi government.