After 26 years, Congress to get a president from south India

Tharoor made it clear, soon after filing his papers, that he will not pull out of the race and has his own vision for the party which he will share with all delegates.
FROM THE SOUTH, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge (L) and Shashi Tharoor (R) filed their nominations for the Congress president election on September 30, 2022. (Photos | PTI)
FROM THE SOUTH, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge (L) and Shashi Tharoor (R) filed their nominations for the Congress president election on September 30, 2022. (Photos | PTI)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the last date of filing of nominations to the post of Congress President ending on Friday, it is certain that the next party chief will be from south India, and after more than a quarter of a century.

P V Narashima Rao was the last one to have occupied this post from South India from 1992 to 1996 and now it will be a fight between party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge who hails from Karnataka and Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor.

Tharoor made it clear, soon after filing his papers, that he will not pull out of the race and has his own vision for the party which he will share with all delegates.

And with the Rajya Sabha veteran Kharge being the "official" candidate of the Nehru-Gandhi family, he is also not going to withdraw and this makes a contest when around 9,100 Congress voters will decide who among the two should be their chief.

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on Friday said his colleague Mallikarjun Kharge will file nomination for the party president's election.

He said that he and P L Punia will be proposers for Kharge's candidature and Digvijaya Singh, who collected nomination papers on Thursday, may not contest.

Tiwari indicated that a consensus could be reached on who will take over the top party post from Sonia Gandhi. Kharge is likely to file his nomination papers around noon, he said.

Kharge is one of the most experienced persons in the party and he is a Dalit leader too, Tiwari said.

Friday is the last day for filing nominations for the top party post.

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