G23 meet sparks possibility of 3rd candidate in Congress president poll

Sep 30, 2022

NEW DELHI: With the process of the Congress president election gathering pace ahead of the last day of filing nominations, some G-23 leaders held a meeting on Thursday evening at the residence of Anand Sharma.

The meeting was attended by former union minister Manish Tewari, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

According to sources, the leaders discussed the whole situation emerging in the run-up to the Congress presidential polls. The leaders will meet again.

A leader from the group is likely to file a nomination on Friday for the party's presidential polls.

"Nobody has filed a nomination yet. Once it is done, there wll be contemplation. The democratic process has begun. BS Hooda, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan and I sat for deliberation and discussed events," Manish Tewari said while leaving Anand Sharma's residence.

Asked whether G-23 will support candidates whose names have come for Congress presidential poll so far, Tewari said, "Days pass between collecting, filing and withdrawing nomination papers. The decision will be taken at that time. In English, it is called in politics 'it is the preponderance of probabilities'. Let us see what happens tomorrow."

The G-23 leaders had written to Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul and internal elections at all levels.