Asserting that he has joined the Congress presidential race to strengthen the party and not to oppose anyone, Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said he had reached out to Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor to pitch for a ‘consensus’ candidate.
Mr. Tharoor, his rival, however reiterated his democratic right to contest the polls, Mr. Kharge added.
In a separate interview to news agency PTI, Mr. Tharoor also talked about having a presidential debate to understand the vision of each candidate.
Launching his campaign on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 153 rd birth anniversary, Mr. Kharge responded to being labelled as the ‘establishment candidate’ and said he entered the polls after senior and young leaders alike urged him to enter the fray.
Addressing his first press conference as a presidential candidate, Mr. Kharge said he decided to step down from the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) post in keeping with the ‘one person one post’ principle’.
‘No G-23 now’
The veteran leader also said now there was no G-23, the ginger group that had been pushing for internal reforms, as he received the support of leaders such as Manish Tewari, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan and all of them jointly want to take on the BJP-RSS combine.
Flanked by young spokespersons and leaders such as Deepender Hooda, Syed Naseer Hussain and Gourav Vallabh, Mr. Kharge said, “Several colleagues, be it young or old, told me to contest since Rahul Gandhi ji, Sonia Gandhi ji or Priyanka Gandhi ji are not interested in contesting the polls”.
Before the start of the press conference, Mr. Vallabh informed that he, along with Mr. Hooda and Mr. Hussain had resigned as party’s official spokespersons to “freely campaign” for Mr. Kharge.
Rejecting the call for a presidential style debate, Mr. Kharge said growing unemployment, rising inflation, widening gap between the rich and the poor and unfulfilled promises of the BJP were the main issues that he would focus on.
Asked about Mr. Tharoor’s comment that he is a candidate for change while Mr. Kharge is a candidate of ‘continuity and status quo’, the 80-year-old leader said it was up to the 9,000-odd Pradesh Congress Committee delegates who make the electoral college to decide on such issues.
“After polls, any decision for reform will be taken jointly and not by one person,” Mr. Kharge said.
Talking about reaching out to Mr. Tharoor, Mr. Kharge said he told his rival that “it is better to have a consensus candidate for the president’s post”.
Slams BJP
Hitting back at the BJP for suggesting that he would be a a ‘puppet president,’ Mr. Kharge said he did not believe in doing anything part-time and had always dedicated himself fully behind the causes that he espoused or roles that he performed. He asked the BJP to spell out when and how did they elect their president, who were the delegates and which was the election authority.
Separately, Mr. Tharoor, who started off his campaign on Saturday after visiting the Deekshabhoomi memorial of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at Nagpur, told PTI that a public debate between the candidates would evoke people’s interest in the party in a manner similar to the recent British Conservative Party leadership race.
“I would be open to the idea….There are no ideological differences among us; rather, it is a question of how we propose to go about achieving the objectives we already agree upon,” Mr. Tharoor said.
Polling for the Congress top post will be held on October 17 and the counting of votes and declaration of results will be on October 19.
(With PTI inputs)
