What Shashi Tharoor said on contesting Congress presidential polls

New Delhi, Aug 30: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that an election will be good for the party while refusing to comment on whether he will run for the post of the Congress president after his recent article in a Malayalam daily triggered speculation that the former Union minister could contest.

On a question by reporters about the party's presidential polls, Tharoor said: "People are free to speculate as they like. All I've written in my article is that elections are a good thing for the party... Beyond that, I have not made any announcement."

"I welcome the fact that the Congress party has announced an election and is going to be conducting it openly, freely and fairly... The process is some weeks away... let's wait for some time and see how it evolves," he added.

On his plans to venture into state politics, Tharoor said: "All options are open. I'm a Lok Sabha MP. My focus in politics has been national and international so far. If one-day vistas open up, one doesn't want to say no."

Tharoor is exploring the possibility of running for the party President's post, as he called for free and fair elections. However, he is yet to take a final call on it.

Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Sonia Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party again as interim president, had also offered to quit in August 2020 after an open revolt by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the Congress Working Committee had urged her to continue.