On Friday, Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi filed their nomination for the post of party President at the office of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in the national capital. Ahead of filing the nomination, Tharoor visited Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi.

Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge said he is also throwing his hat into the ring. “I am going to file my nomination (for Congress president post)”, Kharge told media persons as he left for the AICC headquarters today.

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Meanwhile, Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi also filed his nomination for the party’s topmost position and said that “the decision of party leaders is respected”.

Before filing his nominations, Tripathi had said, “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.”

Earlier today, both Digvijaya Singh and Ashok Gehlot stated that they have dropped out of the race.

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister visited Kharge at his residence this morning. “I told him that I stand by him and can’t even think of contesting against him, I will be his proposer,” Singh told reporters.

Congress MP Deepender S Hooda also said: “I welcome Mallikarjun Kharge’s nomination for Congress president post and am confident that he will get elected. Over the years, he has raised the voice of the people in Parliament. I’ve signed his nomination papers as a proposer.”

On Thursday, Gehlot had said he is pulling out of the contest after he met with Sonia Gandhi and apologised to her for the ruckus in Rajasthan triggered by his loyalists over a possible leadership change in the state after Gehlot was set to file his nomination papers for the Congress chief polls.
Nominations for the post of Congress president close at 3 pm today and results will be declared on October 19.

With the Gandhis not running for the top post this time around, the grand old party is all set to get a non-Gandhi president after over 25 years.