G23 mulls fielding candidate for Congress president's election; Manish Tewari frontrunner

In a fresh twist to the Congress president election, the G23 expressed the possibility of fielding a candidate after Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot ruled himself out of the race. Leaders of this disgruntled Congress group including Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari,  former Union MoS Home Prithviraj Chavan and ex-Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda met at Anand Sharma's residence in the national capital on Thursday night. As per sources, they discussed the present political scenario and mulled the chances of a G23 leader filing the nomination for the party chief's poll today. 

Speaking to the media after leaving Sharma's residence, Manish Tewari said, "Nobody has filed nomination yet. Once it's done, there'll be contemplation. Democratic process has begun. BS Hooda, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan and I sat for deliberation, discussed events. Let's see what happens tomorrow." On whether any G23 leader would contest the poll, he clarified, "Days pass between collecting, filing and withdrawing nomination papers. Decision will be taken at that time. In English it's called in politics it's the preponderance of probabilities". 

Taking a slightly different stance, Prithviraj Chavan told the media, "Good that polls are being held in the party in a democratic way. We thanked Sonia Gandhi for the free-fair polls. Let's see who'll file nomination. We've heard a few names. We'll support the best candidate in the field". As of now, parliamentarians Digvijaya Singh and Shashi Tharoor are set to contest the election. As per sources, Manish Tewari is likely to file his nomination at 11.45 am today. 

Congress president election

While Sonia Gandhi was at the helm of affairs of Congress for 19 years which witnessed the United Progressive Alliance emerging victorious in 2004 as well as the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, her son Rahul Gandhi replaced her in December 2017. Following a series of defeats in state elections combined with the disastrous performance of Congress in the 2019 General elections, he announced his decision to step down. After attempts to persuade him to take back his resignation failed, Sonia Gandhi assumed interim charge of the party in August 2019.

While this election will take place on October 17, the counting of votes shall be held on October 19 if there is more than one candidate in the fray. Though multiple Congress state units passed resolutions backing Rahul Gandhi for the party's top post, he refused to contest this time. Subsequently, Ashok Gehlot threw his hat into the ring and emerged as the favourite because he is a loyalist of the Gandhi family. However, he made a U-turn on Thursday following his inability to prevent a majority of the Rajasthan MLAs from boycotting a CLP meeting.