Congress prez poll: Shashi Tharoor to file nomination papers on Sep 30

New Delhi, Sep 24: Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor collected the nomination forms for the upcoming Congress presidential poll from the party headquarters and he is likely to file his papers on September 30.

According to a PTI report, Tharoor's close aide Aalim Javeri collected the forms on his behalf from the office of the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on the first day of the start of the nomination process. Thus setting the stage for the electoral face-off for the top party post with Gehlot. The nomination form is likely to be filed by Tharoor on the last day of the nomination process on September 30 as the idea is to collect nomination-endorsing signatures from across the country, sources informed the news agency.

At least 10 Pradesh Congress Committee delegates are needed to endorse a candidate.

Before deciding to throw his hat into the ring, the Kerala MP met interim president Sonia Gandhi and sought his nod to contest the poll. However, the party has clarified that nobody needs to take permission from the Gandhis.

Also, Sonia Gandhi has stated that she would not give personal approval to any candidate.

The interim president has also conveyed that the issue of "one person, one post" will come if the candidate is decided and gets elected, a message to Gehlot, who wanted to reportedly retain his Rajasthan CM post while contesting the party presidential poll.

On Friday, Gehlot became the first person to announce his candidature for the AICC presidential poll and said Rahul Gandhi has told him that no one from the Gandhi family should become the next party chief.

After more than two decades, Congress is seeing a contest for the post of its chief.

The process of filing nominations for the election started from September 24 and the last date for submitting the nomination is 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.

Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has given a nod for senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor 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, sources informed ANI on Monday.

After over two decades, the Congress is set to see a contest for the post of party chief with Gehlot.

The counting of votes will be taken up on October 19 and the results will be declared the same day. More than 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates will vote in the poll. The Congress last saw a contest for the party president's post in November 2000. Jitendra Prasada had lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2000 and before that, Sitaram Kesri had defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in 1997.