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.
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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.
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