Congress Prez Polls: Swing Of The Pin Marks End Of Gandhi Raj In Party?

New Delhi: Congress presidential election is now in a muddle. Once it was considered a fight between Ashok Gehlot and Digvijay Singh. And now the situation took a sharp turn with both the leaders’ backstep decisions.

Meanwhile, the major twist came to the fore with the entry of Gandhis’ backed Mallikarjun Kharge. It is Mallikarjun Kharge versus Shashi Tharoor fight now.

While some political pundits claim that this will be the first time in history that Congress going for a democratic way to place a perfect face, critics and opposition parties allege the years-old party of dangling ‘Kharge’ as the carrot.

Kharge, who filed his nomination today, is likely to resign as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha in line with the Congress’s “one person, one post” rule.

Tharoor too filed his nominations today ahead of the 3 pm deadline. Former Jharkhand minister K N Tripathi, who is the third candidate in the contest, has also filed his papers. Digvijaya Singh, who collected his nomination papers yesterday, dropped out of the contest after meeting with Kharge this morning.

Having filed nomination papers for the post of Congress president, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor Friday framed the contest between him and party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge as a choice between “change” represented by him and the continuation of status quo and business and usual by Kharge.

While calling Kharge the Bhishma Pitamah of Congress, he said the veteran is seen as the candidate of continuity.

Gehlot was seen as the first choice of the Gandhis for the top post until his chances were damaged by the rebellion by his loyalists.

Reportedly, there is no official candidate for the Congress President. It is likely the Gandhis may not vote in the internal election to maintain their neutrality.