Congress presidential candidate Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said that he was asked to contest for the party’s top post 18 hours before he officially filed his nomination, news agency PTI reported. He maintained that he entered the presidential polls race keeping in view that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi should have taken up the mantle.
“I was asked to fight the presidential poll 18 hours before the filing of nomination papers. When I questioned why am I being asked to throw my hat in the ring, I learnt that Rahul Gandhi does not want any member from his family to occupy the top party post”, the 80-year old veteran leader said at the Congress headquarters in Patna, Bihar, as quoted by PTI.
The final candidates in fray for the October 17 elections are Kharge and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.
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Kharge said that Rahul Gandhi and his leadership are needed in the party and that he should have become the “Congress president again.”
“But I respect the nobility of his sentiments,” Kharge added.
He reiterated that his priority would be to implement the “Udaipur declaration” undertaken during the party’s ‘Chintan Shivir’ in May in Rajasthan, which also included 50 per cent tickets in elections to those aged under 50 years, once he comes to power.
Kharge, who will be contesting against Tharoor said that the Congress presidential elections are like an “internal family matter” while asserting that the grand-old party was committed to “saving the Constitution” which was allegedly under assault from the ruling BJP at the Centre, according to PTI.
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The elections will take place on October 17, and counting of votes will be on October 19, and results will be declared on the same day.
Around 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates will be deciding the fate of the two veteran leaders. Rahul Gandhi along with 40 other leaders will be voting at the Bharat Jodo Yatra campsite in Bellary district of Karnataka, according to news agency PTI.