Congress President Election: Last Day Of Filing Nomination Today, Tharoor & Digvijaya To Formally Enter Fray
Former MP CM Digvijaya Singh after confirming his candidature met Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday. Both are set to formalise their bids with today being the last day of the nomination process.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Shashi Tharoor will file their nominations for the Congress president's post on Friday, the last day of the nomination process.
Party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said on Tuesday a representative of the Kerala MP has informed his office that he will file his nomination papers for the post of president on September 30 at 11 AM.
Meanwhile, a total of 12 Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh will be proposers for Digvijaya Singh when he files his nomination for the Congress president's election, news agency PTI reported a party leader as saying on Thursday.
He reached Delhi late Wednesday night leaving the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra and collected nomination papers on Thursday.
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MLAs Hina Kanwre, Jitu Patwari, P C Sharma, Lakhan Singh Yadav, Alok Chaturvedi, Arif Masood, Kantilal Bhuria, Ramlal Malviya, Surendra Singh Baghel, Vipin Vankhede, Kamleshwar Patel and Dr Govind Singh will be reaching Delhi to be proposers for Digvijaya Singh's nomination.
Govind Singh confirmed to PTI that he had sent the list of these MLAs to Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath.
Digvijaya Singh after confirming his candidature met Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday.
The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister was asked if he was contesting the election at the behest of the party leadership. To this, he said, "I am responsible for myself." "Wait till the date of withdrawal," he added when asked if he will remain in the fray.
Notably, Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress veteran Ashok Gehlot on Thursday announced that he will not be contesting for the post of party president. Referring to the party's political crisis in Rajasthan, Gehlot decided to cancel his bid for the contest - where he was earlier being viewed as a frontrunner.
Meanwhile, whether there will be any surprise candidatures today will also be seen.
Congress Party's President Election
According to a notification issued by the Congress party, the process for filing nominations for the election ends today.
The date for scrutiny of nomination papers is October 1, while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 8.
The final list of candidates will be published at 5 pm on October 8.
The polling, if needed, will be held on October 17. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 19 and the results will be declared the same day.
More than 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee delegates will vote in the poll.
The Congress last saw a contest for the party president's post in November 2000. Jitendra Prasada had lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2000 and prior to that, Sitaram Kesri had defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in 1997.