New Delhi: After the rejection of former Jharkhand minister KM Tripathi’s nominations, only two candidates are in the contest for the post of Congress president, for which election will be held on October 17. The two candidates are Mallikarjun Khagre and Shashi Tharoor, party sources said on Saturday. Friday was the last day for filing nominations, and the last date for withdrawing papers is October 8 when the final list of candidates will also be out.
Chairman of the party’s Central Election Authority, Madhusudhan Mistry, told the media persons that the poll panel met on Saturday to scrutinise the nomination papers. He said that 20 forms had been received during the nomination process and four rejected because of certain technical problems.
Kharge submitted 14 forms, Tharoor five and Tripathi one. Now, two candidates are in direct contest, Mistry said, adding that if no one withdraws till October 8, the election will be held. Regarding rejection of Tripathi’s form, Mistry said that the signature of one of his proposers did not match and the signature of another proposer was repeated.
One of the rejected forms was of Tripathi, Mistry did not reveal anything about three other rejected forms. In a tweet Tharoor said, “Delighted to learn that, following scrutiny, Shri Kharge and I will be squaring off in the friendly contest for President of Congress. May the Party and all our colleagues benefit from this democratic process!”
