Jairam Ramesh: "It's important to reiterate that any member is welcome to contest for President".
Soon after reports of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor getting the green signal from Sonia Gandhi to run for party President, the grand old party's communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh in what is being seen as a veiled swipe at Mr Tharoor, said, "Nobody needs anybody's nod to contest, especially that of party leadership".
"Entire party is immersed in making #BharatJodoYatra a success. Even so it's important to reiterate that any member is welcome to contest for Congress President. This is a democratic & transparent process. Nobody needs anybody's nod to contest, especially that of party leadership," he tweeted.
Mr 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.
The Congress may have a non-Gandhi president for the first time in over 20 years. Ashok Gehlot, a Gandhi family loyalist, will likely run for party president opposite Shashi Tharoor, who is among those in the party who want major internal reforms.
Shashi 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 organisational overhaul and blaming the party's downward spiral on a leadership drift.
The last non-Gandhi Congress President was Sitaram Kesari, from whom Sonia Gandhi took over in March 1998 – around two years after the Narasimha Rao government was voted out.