Withdrawal date not over, don't know if there will be Cong prez poll on Oct 17: Jairam Ramesh

Gundlupet (K’taka): Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday said he does not know if there would be a party presidential election on October 17, as the last date for withdrawal of nomination is not over yet.

The party General Secretary in charge of Communications said both M Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, who filed their nomination papers, are multi-dimensional personalities.

“All I can say is the election will be free, fair, and transparent,” Ramesh said.

“Congress is a more internally democratic party than the BJP and is the only political party that has the system to elect its President and has elected presidents,” Ramesh added.

In response to a question on Kharge’s Dalit identity and electoral prospects for the Congress with him as a president, Ramesh said, Kharge has had a long public life and has occupied various positions, and he cannot be looked at with only one lens.

“He (Kharge) is a multi-dimensional personality and so is Shashi Tharoor (other candidates). As of now, it is a contest between two multi-dimensional personalities. The last date for withdrawal is still not over, we don’t know whether there will be an election on October 17 or not,” he added.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 8.