Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor
The Congress is set to have a non-Gandhi president for the first time in over 20 years.
Ashok Gehlot, who is considered to be close to the Gandhi family, and Shashi Tharoor, who got the nod for the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, have emerged as top probable contenders for the office of the party chief in case Rahul Gandhi decides not to enter the fray.
Tharoor, a former Union Minister, was the first to declare his intention to run for a post that has been with the Gandhis -- either Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul -- for much of 25 years. He is a prominent member of the Congress's G-23 or group of 23 leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 calling for an organizational overhaul and blaming the party's downward spiral on a leadership drift.
Tharoor met with Sonia Gandhi, who is just back from a trip abroad for a medical check-up, on Monday afternoon and got her go-ahead to contest the October 17 election.
Within hours, the fight for the Congress top post became considerably tougher with Ashok Gehlot emerging as the other candidate. The Rajasthan Chief Minister, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist, had been pressing for Rahul Gandhi's return as party chief until recently. He is likely to win support among those batting for status quo and a return of Rahul Gandhi at the top post.
The filing of nominations for the post of the president begins in three days. The election will take place against the backdrop of exits by a number of key leaders over the last year. The last to go was senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose exit was emulated by most leaders of the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit.
Sonia Gandhi -- who was the Congress President for 19 years and handed charge to son Rahul Gandhi in 2017 -- has been interim Congress chief since he quit the post in 2019, owning responsibility for the party's second consecutive defeat in general elections.
Gandhi, who is currently leading the party's "Bharat Jodo" yatra, has firmly refused to return as president despite unrelenting demand from a section of Congress leaders, including Mr Gehlot. Some of those who quit the party have claimed that Mr Gandhi is the unofficial decision-maker and complained that a coterie around him is calling the shots.