Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor collects form for his candidacy as Congress chief

Digital Desk: Senior Congress politician Shashi Tharoor today collected the nomination form to run for party president, making him the first leader to do so.

Tharoor, a senior member of the Congress' G-23, or group of 23 leaders, was the first to proclaim his intention to compete for the seat that has been held by the Gandhis — either Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul Gandhi — for more than 20 years.

Tharoor, who has received Sonia Gandhi's approval to run in the October 17 poll, faces a stronger struggle from Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a firm Gandhi family loyalist who is backed by those who want the status quo and a return of Rahul Gandhi to the top seat.

Kamal Nath, Tharoor's Madhya Pradesh colleague, and former Union Minister Manish Tiwari, who wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020, demanding an organisational change and blaming the party's downward slide on a leadership schism, are also said to be interested.

This will be the first presidential election in over two decades without Gandhi as the default candidate.

Rahul Gandhi, who is presently leading the party's "Bharat Jodo" yatra, has flatly refused to return as president, as he resigned from following the 2019 general election catastrophe.