Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday said he will contest for the post of party president, PTI reported.
“I have taken the nomination papers and most probably I will file my nominations tomorrow,” Singh told reporters.
The Congress party president elections will take place on October 17 and the results will be announced two days later. The last date to file nominations is on September 30.
Besides Singh, only Congress Shashi Tharoor has confirmed that he will contest the poll. He will file his nomination on Friday.
Last week, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also said that he will be contesting for the Congress president’s post.
However, hours after he hinted that he would quit the chief minister’s post to contest the presidential poll, several Congress MLAs tendered their resignations, putting the party into a crisis.
The MLAs boycotted a meeting called in Jaipur to pass a resolution empowering the party president to pick Gehlot’s successor and instead went to the residence of Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi to submit their resignation amid speculation that Gehlot’s rival Sachin Pilot could be appointed the next chief minister.
Supporters of Gehlot claim that around 90 legislators tendered their resignation to the Speaker, who is yet to take a call on them.
The legislators demanded that the new chief minister of Rajasthan should be chosen from the pool of MLAs who had kept the government afloat when Pilot staged a revolt against the Congress in August 2020, triggering a political crisis. The Congress has issued show cause notices to three of Gehlot’s close aides for the rebellion in the party’s Rajasthan unit.
No action has been taken against Gehlot and it is not clear if the 71-year-old will enter the contest for the party’s presidential election.
On Thursday, Gehlot arrived at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence in New Delhi.
On Wednesday night, he had told reporters that the Congress worked in a disciplined way and would be “able to resolve the internal politics within the family”.
Gehlot asked the media to focus on the issues plaguing India. “Authors and journalists are being called anti-nationals and jailed,” he said. “We worry for them and Rahul Gandhi is on yatra for them.”
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