Congress President Election: Shashi Tharoor To File Nomination On Sept 30, Poll In-Charge Mistry Confirms

This will be the first time in 25 years that Congress will be led by someone other than Sonia Gandhi, who beat Jitendra Prasad in 1998.

Senior Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor. ( Image Source :PTI File Photo )

Congress president poll in-charge Madhusudan Mistry on Tuesday stated that Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor would register his nomination for the position of party President on September 30, 2022, at 11 am, news agency PTI reported.

Speaking about filing his nomination, Shashi Tharoor said: "He will be approaching delegates from various states as he has taken 5 sets of nomination papers, for which he'll need 50 delegates as proposers for his candidature."

This will be the first time in 25 years that Congress will be led by someone other than Sonia Gandhi, who beat Jitendra Prasad in 1998. The party's last non-Gandhi leader was Sitaram Kesri, who beat Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in 1996.

Madhusudan Mistri, Chairman of the Central Election Authority, would be available at Congress headquarters in the national capital to accept nomination papers as the election's returning officer, ANI reported.

According to the announcement issued by the Congress Party, the aforementioned elections for the party's new president are scheduled to take place on October 17 at all PCCs, with the results to be revealed on October 19, immediately following the counting of ballots.

The final list of candidates will be announced on October 8 at 5 p.m.

Mistry has urged Congress party delegates to nominate the President of the Indian National Congress in line with the terms of Article 18.

However, there have been rumours that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has declared his desire to run for the party's highest office. However later, Gehlot clarified his candidacy for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidential election.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh said on Friday that he will not run for party president. The senior politician told a news conference in Jabalpur that he would not run in the Congress Presidential election, but that he would obey the instructions of higher-ups in the party.

The Congress presidential election is heating up after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced his candidacy on Friday. Gehlot further revealed that Rahul Gandhi has stated unequivocally that "no member of the Gandhi family" will be the future party leader.

Meanwhile, following Digvijay Singh's explanation, Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor have emerged as the leading candidates for the position.

Rahul Gandhi described the job of Congress president as a "ideological office," saying it "represents a set of ideas, belief system, and vision of India."

(With Inputs From Agencies)