Rahul insists I should stay in race: Tharoor

TRIVANDRUM: Dr Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had asked him not to withdraw from the race for the Congress party president despite pressure from top leaders.

He also revealed that the former party president even told him that some leaders had urged him to ask him to withdraw from the race which he refused.

The lawmaker representing the Kerala state capital, who is pited against Mallikarjun Kharge in the Oct.17 election, is currently here to solicit votes.

“I had spoken to the Gandhis (Sonia and her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka) before filing my nomination papers and all of them encouraged me,” he told reporters here.

“They told me there’s no official candidate and they encouraged competition. Rahul told me that some leaders wanted him to ask me to withdraw and he refused.”

Rahul resigned as the party president ater the severe drubbing in the 2019 national elections and his mother was serving as the interim president since.

He also repeatedly rejected requests to take up the reins of the party and insisted on elections making it clear that someone outside his family should be at the top.

Tharoor met him during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the south-north foot march from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, when he reached Palakkad.

All top Kerala leaders, including state unit chief K Sudhakaran, had publicly endorsed the candidature of Kharge, 80, who also enjoys the support of the top brass.

Those who signed the nomination papers of the veteran Dalit leader from Karnataka also include AK Antony, a trusted lieutenant of Sonia.

Some of the state units have also come out in support of Kharge believing that he had the backing of the Gandhis.

Following this, the Central Election Authority (CEA) chief Madhusudhan Mistry issued guidelines asking officials who want to take sides to resign from their posts.

“Rahul Gandhi told me that he was saying this for the past ten years and it was good that there’s a healthy contest for the post now,” Dr Tharoor, 66, said.

“He said a contest would do only good for the party. I expect those who are courageous enough would vote for me and others follow what some others tell them to do.”

Dr Tharoor insisted that he was in the fray because he wanted to prepare Congress to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 elections.

He said he was not expecting the support of “big leaders” but many others had called him and extended their support.