Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will join the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said party leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference in the Alappuzha district in Kerala where the yatra entered on September 10, Ramesh said that the march has completed 275 km of its distance in total. The 3,570-km yatra had started on September 7. “We have completed 275 km of Bharat Jodo Yatra. We would have complete 285 by today. Priyanka Gandhi will join the yatra. She is working out to join in Kerala,” he said.
When asked about the election of the Congress president that is scheduled to take place on October 17, Ramesh said that all the party workers are focussed on making the Bharat Jodo Yatra a success.
Referring to the reports of Shashi Tharoor getting the nod from Sonia Gandhi to contest the election for the party chief post, Ramesh said that nobody needs to take permission from Rahul or Sonia Gandhi to file the nominations and anybody is free to contest the election.
The remarks came after Congress leader and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Monday received the nod from Sonia Gandhi to contest in the upcoming poll for the party president’s post, sources said.
Tharoor received interim-party president Sonia Gandhi’s go ahead after he met her here.
According to sources, Tharoor, during the meeting, expressed his wish to contest the elections scheduled to be held on October 17 to “make internal democracy” in the party stronger. Gandhi, in response, giving her nod to the Thiruvananthapuram MP and said that anybody can contest elections.
“Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor gets a nod from Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi to contest for the post of the party president, after he reached out to her in a meeting today, citing he can make internal democracy stronger. Sonia Gandhi, Congress interim president, replied that he (Shashi Tharoor) can contest (for the post of the party president) if he wants, anybody can contest elections,” said the sources.
Notably, Tharoor is one of the signatories of a letter written to Sonia Gandhi by the G-23 group (seeking reforms in the party). The meeting has brought clarity to his contesting the party president polls, which earlier was a matter of much speculation.