Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 30: Despite repeatedly saying they will stay “neutral,” the “Gandhis” apparently have propped up the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge as the “establishment candidate” for the Congress presidential elections to take on the former union minister and one of the “G-23” dissidents Shashi Tharoor for the party’s top post.
This will be the first time in more than 20 years that an election process has been initiated to select the Congress president with none from the Gandhi family contesting but the “Gandhis” apparently will remain at the helm by proxy if Kharge gets through.
Considering that even other G-23” group members have backed Kharge leaving Tharoor, who they said was “not a serious candidate” to fend for himself, the election of Kharge seems to be a foregone conclusion. The former Jharkhand minister KN Tripathi has also filed nominations but he is not considered to be a serious contender for the party’s top post while the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh, who was in the picture till Thursday, backed out in favour of Kharge while the former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who was considered the first choice of the Gandhis for the post, had ruled himself out after a rebellion by his supporters against the high command observers sent by the party interim president Sonia Gandhi.
On the last day of the filling of nominations on Friday, Kharge, Tharoor and Tripathi filed their papers before the party’s election officer Madhusudan Mistry. After a late-night meeting, Congress veteran KC Venugopal conveyed to Mr Kharge that the leadership wants him to contest, said sources, despite the Gandhis saying they would remain neutral.
Kharge is likely to resign as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha in line with the Congress’s “one person, one post” rule, said sources. Kharge’s proposers for the contest include several big names, including former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Digvijaya Singh, and Prithviraj Chavan, former defence minister AK Antony, spokesperson AM Singhvi, and former Union minister Ajay Maken, among others.
Tharoor too filed his nominations today ahead of the 3 pm deadline. Sources said former Lok Sabha MP Sandeep Dikshit was perhaps the lone G-23 member who signed Tharoor’s nomination form as proposer. But Tharoor said neither he was contesting the presidential elections on behalf of the “G-23” nor required their endorsement. “I am contesting for reforms in the Congress,” he said, which was the cardinal point of the dissidents who had shot off the explosive letter to Mrs Gandhi in 2020 demanding organisational changes and “total reform” in the party set up.
Tharoor said Mrs Gandhi told him “you are most welcome to contest” and assured him there would be no “official candidate” as her entire family would stay neutral. The Congress leader said he met with Sonia Gandhi, not for a green signal but to find out what the official stand is. The Congress president didn’t try to dissuade him at all, he said.
“If she might have said why do you want to contest, we always do things by consensus, leave it to us, we will find the right person…But there was nothing of that sort. On the contrary, she said exactly the opposite. She said ‘we believe the elections are good for the party. If you want to contest, you are most welcome’,” Tharoor said. Tharoor said he asked Sonia Gandhi whether there would be an official candidate. “She said there will be no official candidate, as far as I am concerned the entire family is neutral in the race. I had the same conversation but both Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi and I got the same message consistently. When Digvijaya Singh went to Sonia Gandhi he got the same message,” the Congress leader said.
Tharoor said his is not a “protest candidacy” but a contest between colleagues in the party. Responding to critics who have questioned his experience in politics and whether he is the right person for the job, he said: “Fourteen years is long enough to make a contribution and to have demonstrated both one’s loyalty to the party and to its ideals and beliefs, and to have had multiple opportunities to demonstrate it, which I have done in parliament and number of speeches and interventions and books and articles I have written. I don’t think I need to explain my candidacy.”
He also tackled the big question for any Congress candidate running for party chief – will the candidate be a puppet for the Gandhis? “We’ll cross those bridges when we come to it. I certainly believe that the Gandhis’ place in the Congress…their inextricable links with the DNA of the party is great. There is no question of separating ourselves from them, their legacy. If they don’t want to be actively involved, I don’t understand where the fear (of them pulling the strings) comes from,” Tharoor said.
Among the proposers for Kharge includes G-23 leaders like Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, and Anand Sharma. Other senior leaders who are proposers A. K. Antony, Ashok Gehlot, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken and Salman Khurshid among others. After filing the nomination Kharge said “I thank senior leaders from all states for supporting me in the Congress presidential election.”
The Congress leader stated “I appeal to all delegates to vote for me in the Congress presidential election.” Kharge said “I am fighting for big change.”
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Congress leader K.N. Tripathi also filed his nomination for the party’s topmost position and said “the decision of party leaders is respected.” “I belong to a farmer’s family. The country is seeing that son of a farmer who has experience of serving with the Indian Air Force, minister in state government and elected as deputy leader of Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, can also contest for the post of AICC president,” Tripathi had said before filing his nominations.