Shashi Tharoor files nomination to contest in Congress presidential poll

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on September 30 filed a nomination to contest in the Congress presidential poll race.

Former Jharkhand minister KN Tripathi also filed the nomination.

The party members will elect their next chief on October 17 and the results would be announced two days later.

Meanwhile, Mallikarjun Kharge is the other frontrunner in the contest after Digvijaya Singh and Ashok Gehlot dropped out of the race. 

The Congress Party has announced the date for the party's presidential election.

However, veteran leader and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh whom people were also expecting to the contest, on September 23 said that was not interested in becoming the party's leader even as the contest for the Congress presidency heats up.

Singh made the statement during his visit to Jhoteshwar in Narsinghpur district to pay tributes to the late Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, who passed away recently, at his samadhi.

The next elections would undoubtedly be historic, since the new president will replace Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving party president, who has been in charge since 1998, with the exception of the two years between 2017 and 2019, when Rahul Gandhi took office