Kharge, 80, had on Friday filed his nomination paper for the top post of Congress.
New Delhi: A day after filing nomination for the post of Congress president, veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge has resigned from Rajya Sabha post. Kharge (80) was holding the post of Leader of Opposition in the Upper House since 2019. His resignation from Leader of Opposition may came in line with the party’s “one person, one post” rule
According to the report, Mallikarjun Kharge resigned from the Rajya Sabha post and conveyed the message to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Now Gandhi, who is chairperson of the Congress parliamentary party, will appoint a new Leader of Opposition and the appointment will be conveyed to the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
Kharge had on Friday filed his nomination paper for the top post of Congress. For Mallikarjun Kharge’s nomination, several party leaders including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Digvijaya Singh, Prithviraj Chavan, AK Antony, AM Singhvi and Ajay Maken were the proposers.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had filed his nomination paper on Friday. Besides Tharoor, Congress leader and former Jharkhand minister K N Tripathi had also filed his nomination as a third candidate. Digvijaya Singh, who has earlier announced to fight, had decided not to show his candidature. He had decided to opt out from the race after meeting with Mallikarjun Kharge this morning.
According to the reports, senior party leader KC Venugopal had informed Kharge that the leadership wants him to contest. Earlier, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had announced to quit the race after apologizing to Sonia Gandhi for the Rajasthan revolt by MLAs loyal to him.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had on Thursday had said that he is not in the race of Congress president. The Chief Minister, after meeting party president Sonia Gandhi at her residence, had said that he has ‘apologised’ to Gandhi over the recent crisis in Rajasthan Congress. His meeting with the party president had come after a recent crisis in the state amid speculation of elevation of Sachin Pilot as Chief Minister of the state.
Earlier, it was said that Gehlot will file his nomination for the president post as the election is scheduled to be held on October 17. Amid Gehlot’s elevation as new boss of the party, Sachin Pilot was the likely choice of central leadership for the post of Rajasthan CM. Meanwhile, pro-Gehlot MLAs opposed any such move to elevate Pilot as new CM of the state. As many as 92 MLAs had on Sunday revolted against the party’s decision and submitted mass resignation to the state assembly speaker. The MLAs said that they will never accept Pilot as CM of the state as he had earlier revolted against Ashok Gehlot government. They said that the new chief minister should be elected by the Congress legislatures instead of the central team.
