NEW DELHI: Former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh, 75, on Thursday made a wild card entry in the Congress presidential race by picking up a nomination form from the AICC headquarters and announcing that he would file his papers on Friday.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has already announced his candidature. The race for the top Congress post appears to have narrowed down to between Digvijaya and Tharoor. The last day for filing nomination papers is September 30. If the high command does not field a third candidate by Friday, Digvijaya Singh will most certainly be the next Congress president. Almost all Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh will arrive in Delhi on Friday along with the PCC delegates, who are the voters in the presidential election, to propose the candidature of Digvijaya Singh.
Sources, however, did not rule out the possibility of a last-minute entry of a Dalit candidate. Names of several party leaders were being mentioned in this context. Among them are Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, party general secretary Mukul Wasnik and former Haryana president of Congress Kumari Selja. Party general secretary K C Venugopal’s name is also doing the rounds.
Ashok Gehlot, who was earlier tipped to be the party’s official candidate, bowed out after meeting interim party president Sonia Gandhi. He apologised to Sonia for the ugly events in Jaipur and offered his resignation from the post of Rajasthan chief minister taking moral responsibility.
Party MLAs loyal to him had refused to meet central observers to sign a resolution authorising Sonia to choose his replacement after his nomination for party presidency. “I have apologised to Soniaji because a simple resolution, which is our tradition and which we always pass, a situation emerged that it could not be passed. I, as CLP leader, whatever the reasons, could not get the resolution passed,” he said.
Digvijaya met Kharge, former finance minister P Chidambaram and Tharoor. Tharoor tweeted a picture of them hugging each other.
G23 to take its call
Leaders of the G23 ginger group met at Anand Sharma’s house in the evening. After the meeting, Manish Tewari said they would wait for the nomination process to be over on Friday and take a call on supporting the best candidate.
Sonia to take call on Gehlot’s CM-ship soon
As a result of the Jaipur stand-off, Ashok Gehlot lost the chance of becoming the Congress president. His continuance as chief minister is also no longer certain. Party general secretary K C Venugopal said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will take a decision on Gehlot’s continuance in office within the next two days.