Contest among colleagues: Digvijaya Singh meets Shashi Tharoor; Gehlot bows out

HYDERABAD: Race to the Congress party top post keeps getting interesting even as the party readies itself for the first presidential polls in over two decades. With Digvijaya Singh, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh entering the fray, the contest among colleagues has heated up.

Though Gandhi family loyalist, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot was the favourite in the race, a rebellion by his loyalists over the post of chief minister made him bow out of the contest.

Mr. Gehlot took moral responsibility for the political crisis in his state and told reporters that he apologised to her for the developments when MLAs supporting him defied the central observers and thwarted their move to hold a meeting of party legislators.

Meanwhile, Digvijaya Singh, who was in Kerala, taking part in Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, has met Shashi Tharoor who was the first one to get nomination form collected from the party’s election authority chairman Madhusudhan Mistry .

Tweeting a photograph of their meeting, MP Shashi Tharoor said in post “I welcome his candidacy for Congress Presidency. We both agreed that ours is not a battle b/w rivals but a friendly contest among colleagues. All we want is that whoever prevails, Cong will win!” (sic.)

“I agree Shashi Tharoor we are fighting the Communal Forces in India. Both believe in the Gandhian Nehruvian Ideology and shall fight them relentlessly come what may. Best wishes” replied Digvijaya Singh to Shashi Tharoor’s tweet.

The process of filing nominations for party top boss role will end on September 30 and the scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on October 1 with October 8 being the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

While the polling will be held on October 17, the day of counting, which all Congress loyalists across India will be looking forward to, will be on October 19 as both counting of votes and declaration will happen on the same day .