Congress MP Shashi Tharoor will start his campaign for the post of party president by visiting the Deekshabhoomi memorial here on Saturday. Maharashtra Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh said Tharoor would pay homage on Saturday at Deekshabhoomi, where Dr BR Ambedkar along with his followers converted to Buddhism in 1956. Deshmukh has organized a tour of the Thiruvananthapuram MP here.
Tharoor, 66, filed his nomination for the Congress President’s election in Delhi on Friday. As per his itinerary, Tharoor will land at Nagpur airport at 4.50 pm on Saturday. From there he will leave for Deekshabhoomi here where he will pay tribute to Dr Ambedkar and later address a press conference.
On Sunday, Tharoor will visit Mahatma Gandhi’s Sevagram ashram in Wardha at 9 am and later visit Vinoba Bhave’s ashram in Pawanar. He will return to Nagpur by 12.45 pm and hold a meeting with senior Congress leaders, party’s state unit members and workers.
Deshmukh said, “Tharoor is a popular Congress MP, who has done remarkable work for the country at the international level. The election of the Congress President is an important step for decentralization in the party.
Deshmukh also claimed that Congress representatives in 12 states have openly supported Tharoor and he is getting the support of party leaders and workers from across India. The stage was set on Friday for a contest between Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge for the post of Congress president, with the latter emerging as the clear favourite.
The third candidate in the fray, former Jharkhand minister KN Tripathi, is considered light for the contest. Kharge, Tharoor and Tripathi filed their nominations on Friday, the last day. More than 9,100 delegates are eligible to vote in the October 17 election. The result will be declared on October 19.
Tharoor was part of the Congress’s G-23 group, which called for an organizational change and elections at all levels of the party. On Friday, he had described his poll rival Kharge as a “candidate for continuity” and a “status quo” candidate. He also denied withdrawing from the contest, insisting that he had not taken the trouble of filing nominations only to exit later.
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