Congress President Election: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also a candidate now for party's top post, on Saturday resigned as Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha.
Kharge, who filed the nomination in the party president election on Friday, sent his resignation to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.
His resignation came in the accordance with the Congress’ Udaipur Resolution of One Leader One Post.
Earlier, Kharge said he was fighting for a big change in the party. He also appealed to all delegates to vote for him.
Kharge is one of the most experienced persons in the party and is a Dalit leader too which might be ‘X-factor’ that can outrace him over his rival Shashi Tharoor.
"I thank senior leaders from all states for supporting me in the Congress presidential election," Kharge told reporters at the AICC office after filing his nomination on Friday.
His candidature was proposed by party leaders Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, AK Antony, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Mukul Wasnik. G23 leaders Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari have also backed him.
The Udaipur Resolution of One Leader One Post has played a controversial role so far as it caused serious trouble for the party in Rajasthan and created a revolt in the state. The resolution compelled Gehlot to pull himself out from the Congress president race.
Former Congress president and party MP Rahul Gandhi, publicly asserted that one has to stick with the ‘One Leader One Post’ that triggered huge political drama in the party which ended with the withdrawal of Gehlot's ambition to be party president and also Gehlot had to apologize to party president Sonia Gandhi for Rajashtan fiasco.
