Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said that Mallikarjun Kharge has the experience to strengthen the Congress and would emerge as a clear winner in the Congress presidential poll, while Shashi Tharoor belongs to the “elite class”.
“Kharge has a long political experience. He has a clean heart, he comes from the Dalit community and is being welcomed everywhere,” he told reporters.
“Tharoor is also a good man and has good thoughts but he is from the elite class,” said Geholt, one of the proposers of Kharge.
“Tharoor is a class apart; he is from elite class but the kind of experience which is needed to strengthen the party at booth, block and district levels, that is with Kharge and cannot be compared to Shashi Tharoor. Therefore, it will naturally be a one-sided contest for Kharge,” PTI news agency quoted Gehlot as saying.
Gehlot who was the first preference of Gandhis, later announced that he will not contest the Congress presidential polls as he took moral responsibility for the political crisis in his state.
Voting is on October 17, and result will be out two days later.
This is the first election in over 20 years without a Gandhi — current chief Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul Gandhi — up for the party’s top post.
