Picture : Twitter/ ANI
Amid suspense over who could take on Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Shashi Tharoor in the Congress president polls, party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Tuesday said AICC treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal has got nomination forms collected, adding that it may be for someone else.
Earlier, It was assumed it could be Shashi Tharoor versus Ashok Gehlot. But The Rajasthan Chief Minister Gehlot after the political drama in in the state and the stance / defiance by his loyalist MLA’s has upset Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi. As of now Gehlot is certainly out of the race .
According to media reports, the names of Kumari Selija and Rahul Gandhi close – aide K C Venugopal are doing the rounds after the exit of Gehlot . Kamal Nath has expressed disinterest and wants to focus on Madhya Pradesh , due for assembly polls next year. Senior Leader Digvijaya Singh has not ruled himself out of the race . The suspense will end on September 30
Mistry also said a representative of Tharoor has informed his office that he will file nomination for the post of president on September 30 at 11 am.
Speaking with reporters at his office at the AICC headquarters here, Mistry said he met party chief Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence on Tuesday and handed over her voter’s ID card.
He also briefed Gandhi about the process so far as to how many people have collected the nomination forms and about the delegates.
Mistry said Bansal got the nomination forms collected from his office on Monday and it may be “as a supporter” of someone.
When pressed further as to whether Bansal may have collected the forms for himself or someone else, Mistry said he cannot say for whom he has collected as it is not the procedure to ask for whom forms are being collected as any delegate can collect the forms.
According to a notification issued by the party, the process for filing nominations for the election will be held from September 24 to 30. The date for scrutiny of the nomination papers is October 1, while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 8. The final list of candidates will be published at 5 pm on October 8.
