Shashi Tharoor, KN Tripathi and Mallikarjun Kharge filed their nomination papers for the Congress presidential polls today. The nominations for the post of President closed at 3 PM.
A party veteran from Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge filed his nomination in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Union Minister Anand Sharma amongst others. Chavan and Sharma are the members of ginger group which has sought internal reforms from party president Sonia Gandhi through written letter. G-23 leader Manish Tewari and senior leaders Mr. Gehlot, A K Antony, Ajay Maken, Salman Khurshid and Ambika Soni are all signatories to Kharge's application.
Kharge thanked senior leaders from different states for supporting him in the Congress presidential election after filing his nomination. Saying that he is "fighting for big change", he appealed to delegates to vote for him in these elections.
Shashi Tharoor filed his nomination papers after visiting the Raj Ghat. The only MP from Kerala who signed Tharoor's nomination form was M K Raghavan.
On being asked about Chavan and Sharma signing Kharge's nomination papers, Tharoor said that this tells a story. He added that if delegates wish for a status quoist, they should vote for Mr. Kharge and if they want reforms, they should vote for him.
Tharoor said that he will go with by the assurance of neutrality extended by Sonia Gandhi.
Digvijaya Singh, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, who withdrew from the competition visited Kharge at his residence this morning and assured to be standing by him and couldn't even be thinking of contesting against him.
Deepinder S Hooda, Congress MP welcomed Mallikarjun Kharge's nomination for the president post and exhibited confidence about his election.
The results of the nominations will be declared on 19th October. The grand old Congress party will get an non-Gandhi president after more than 25 years this time.
