Congress presidential poll: List of probable contestants

New Delhi, Sep 22: As the process of filing nominations for next month's Congress presidential poll is set to begin on September 24, new names are getting added to the probable list.

In the last few days, there were reports which claim that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor were the two leading contenders for the post.

Both the leaders had met Congress' interim president Sonia Gandhi. While Tharoor reportedly sought Sonia's permission to contest the poll, the party leadership has pushed Gehlot to run for the poll.

Last evening, senior leader Digvijaya Singh said he might join the Congress presidential poll race along with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor.

On asking whether he will endorse Gehlot or Tharoor in the poll, he said, "Let's see. I am not ruling myself out also, why do you want to keep me out?" Thus indicating that he might be the third man in the party's first poll in two decades.

Now, a few other names have joined the race. As per the NDTV sources, Kamal Nath, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, former Union Ministers Manish Tewari, Mallikarjun Kharge and ex-Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah are the possible aspirants.

It has to be noted that many of them belong to G-23 group, the rebel group that demanded an organisational overhaul and elections at all levels of the party.

The process of filing nominations for the election will be held from September 24 to September 30. The date for a scrutiny of the nomination papers would be October 1, while the last date for withdrawal of nominations would be October 8. The election, if there is more than one candidate, will be held on October 17, while the counting of votes, if necessary, and the declaration of results would be on October 19.