Cong prez polls: Kharge resigns as LoP Rajya Sabha; Sonia to pick his replacement after polls

With Ashok Gehlot out, it is Congress senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge who has become the new favourite for the party president's post. He resigned as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha after he filed his nomination papers to contest the polls on Friday. Sonia Gandhi will choose his replacement in parliament after the polls, reports Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday tendered his resignation as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajya Sabha as he has filed nomination papers to contest the party president elections. Kharge resigned in line with the party's Udaipur declaration of 'One Leader One Post' of the Congress party taken at its 'Chintan Shivir'.

"I hereby tender my resignation from the post of Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, consequent upon my filing of nomination for the post of President, All India Congress Committee," Kharge said in his letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, who will choose the new Leader of the Opposition.

"Kharge ji has submitted his resignation. Now it is up to the Congress chief to accept it or reject it,” Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tewari told ETV Bharat. “There is no hint of the Winter Session of Parliament till date. Kharge ji is the LoP. That issue can be decided after the party polls,” said Tewari, hinting that Sonia Gandhi may not rush through the decision.

But that did not stop speculation over who could be Kharge’s replacement for the key Rajya Sabha position as veterans Digvijaya Singh and P Chidambaram may be the natural claimants for the Constitutional post. The party is currently holding the internal elections for the topmost position, for which Friday was the last day for filing the nominations. The election will be held on October 17 and the results would be out on October 19.

The 80-year-old leader had received support from nearly 30 Congress leaders including Deepender Hooda, Salman Khurshid, Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, and several others.

According to Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, a total of 20 nomination forms were received on Friday. He said that the Gandhi family is not supporting any candidate for the party's president post. Kharge is a known Gandhi family loyalist, who entered into the fray at the eleventh hour. Several top leaders including from the G-23 faction flanked Kharge when he filed the nomination papers.

Mistry added that 14 nominations were received by Mallikarjun Kharge, five by Shashi Tharoor and one by Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi. Mistry said that the candidates were in the fray of their own volition and Gandhis are neutral in this contest and are not supporting anyone. Interestingly, Digvijaya Singh had collected forms for his nomination for the next Congress president but did not file his papers after the name of Kharge was made official on September 30, the last date of nominations.

Singh had noted that Kharge was his leader and he would not have even collected the forms if he had an inkling that Kharge could be chosen for the top party post by Sonia Gandhi. Singh, who was one of the proposers of Kharge, had said on the day he had collected the forms that he had not discussed his candidature with the Gandhis and was joining the fray on his own.

Chidambaram had met Digvijaya on September 29, a day before Kharge's name cropped up in the high-profile contest. With Kharge, a leader from south India, set to become the next party chief against his rival Shashi Tharoor, Singh, who belongs to Madhya Pradesh in central India, would be a strong contender for the post of LoP in the Rajya Sabha.

Though Chidambaram, a former finance minister is no less in stature, he too belongs to south India. Incidentally, both Singh and Chidambaram do not hold any party posts, which kind of keeps them out of the loop of the one-person one-post norm.

Besides Digvijay and Chidambaram, the others who may be considered by the party high command are Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal but both the leaders hold AICC posts. Ramesh is AICC general secretary in charge of communications and Venugopal is AICC general secretary in charge of Organization.

Kharge was named to the key post by Sonia Gandhi in 2021 after his predecessor Ghulam Nabi Azad’s tenure ended. Before that Kharge was the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha but had lost the 2019 parliamentary elections following which he was moved to the Rajya Sabha by Sonia Gandhi. The LoP in either house of Parliament enjoys a cabinet minister’s rank.

The party had decided to follow the “one person, one post” norm in May when the Udaipur Declaration was approved. The norm had come into focus recently when presidential nominee Ashok Gehlot had expressed his desire to hold the twin posts of Congress president as well as Rajasthan chief minister.

Rahul Gandhi had then said publicly that the party was committed to the one person one post norm, in a clear hint to Gehlot. According to party insiders, Sonia Gandhi would have to consider several pros and cons when deciding on the next LoP candidate.

Given that the Congress is pitched against the BJP, which has a host of Hindi-speaking leaders, the Congress leaders in either house of Parliament should be comfortable with the language to take on the Centre and the ruling party, which has a major presence in north and central India and is limited only to Karnataka in the south.

While Kharge speaks Hindi well, Digvijay has better command over the language and is also seen as a veteran from the Hindi-speaking belt by many in the party. In contrast, though Chidambaram regularly attacks the Centre and the BJP over various political and policy issues, he is comfortable only with English and this may be a limitation towards his candidature as the next LoP in the Rajya Sabha.

Among the other two probables, Ramesh and Venugopal, the former has better command over Hindi while the latter struggles with the language. Further, Venugopal is also seen by many in the party as not suitable for the LoP post given his political stature.

Already, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, who hails from West Bengal, speaks heavily accented Hindi, which many in the party believe is not sufficient to take on the BJP, which has brute majority in the Lok Sabha.

But Chaudhary scores high on factors like seniority in the house, commitment to the Congress ideology and loyalty to the Gandhi family, which has kept him in the key role. Further, the Rajya Sabha is where the opposition has been able to counter the Centre more effectively as compared to the Lok Sabha.

Hence, whoever becomes the LoP must have aggression and felicity with Hindi language to take on the BJP as well as should be able to take the other opposition parties along, said party insiders.