National News
Shashi Tharoor, a leader in the Congress, intends to run for party president: Report
On October 17, elections will be held for the position of Congress president, and the results will be announced on October 19.
In New Delhi: Shashi Tharoor, a senior member of the Congress, is reportedly considering running for Congress president but has not made up his mind about it.
They claimed he hasn’t decided yet but might make a decision shortly. Tharoor wrote an essay for the Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi in which he urged for a “free and fair” election, but he declined to say if he would enter the race.
In the piece, he stated that in a perfect world, the party would have announced elections for the dozen seats on the CWC that are actually up for election.
According to Tharoor, who was one of the 23 leaders who wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in 2020 requesting organisational reforms, allowing party members drawn from the AICC and PCC delegates to decide who will lead the party from these key positions “would have helped legitimise the incoming set of leaders and give them a credible mandate to lead the party.”
The Thiruvananthapuram MP remarked, “Still, electing a new president is a start towards the revitalisation the Congress sorely needs.
Other positive effects of the election, according to Tharoor, include “the global interest in the British Conservative Party during their recent leadership race, a phenomenon we already witnessed in 2019, when a dozen candidates contested to replace Theresa May, and Boris Johnson emerged as the victor.”
In the piece, he said that reenacting a similar scenario for the Congress would similarly boost the party’s national profile and attract more supporters.
“As a result, I hope that a number of individuals step forward to submit their names for consideration. Public curiosity will be piqued by their views for the party and the country, he said.
While the party as a whole has to be revitalised, the Congress president’s job is obviously the most critical to fill. said Tharoor.
Whoever occupies the office of president will surely need to accomplish the twin tasks of energising the Congress party workers and motivating voters given the current status of the party, the perception of crisis, and the national picture.
“He or she should have a strategy to solve the party’s problems as well as an outlook for India. A political party is after all a tool to serve the nation, not a goal in and of itself, he stated.
In either case, a fair election process would be a constructive method to resolve the conflict. According to him, doing so would validate the mandate given to the future president.
The Congress, which is currently experiencing internal strife, declared on Sunday that it would hold its presidential election on October 17 and claimed to be the only party in the nation to do so.
On October 19, the results will be made public.
Anyone can run for office, according to AICC General Secretary Organization K C Venugopal, during the press conference when the party revealed the calendar. There is no closed election. Rahul Gandhi was openly urged by a number of figures, notably Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, to return as party chief.
On the matter, though, there is still uncertainty and tension. Rahul Gandhi, according to several party insiders, is continuing to stand by his decision to decline the position of AICC president.
On Wednesday, Gehlot attempted to downplay rumours that he was the front-runner for the position of Congress president and stated that attempts will be made up until the very end to urge Rahul Gandhi to assume control of the party once more.
Following the Congress’ second consecutive loss in the 2019 parliamentary elections, Rahul Gandhi resigned as party leader.
After an open uprising by a group of leaders known as the G-23 in August 2020, Sonia Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party once more as interim president, also offered to resign. However, the CWC encouraged her to stay in office.
