With Gehlot likely out of race, high command looks for Tharoor’s challenger in Congress president poll

New Delhi, 28/9: The suspense over a Congress presidential candidate supported by the Gandhi family heightened on Tuesday, as party treasurer Pawan Bansal took two sets of nomination papers for a “potential candidate”. The development comes on the heels of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot falling out of the leadership’s favour following the Jaipur rebellion.

With just three days left for the last day of nominations, senior leader and family loyalist A K Antony, who moved to Kerala owing to health reasons, will reach Delhi late in the day for discussions, while Central Election Authority Chairperson Madhusudan Mistry presented the final electoral list and her QR-coded voter card.

Gehlot, who was earlier scheduled to reach Delhi on Tuesday and file his nomination on Wednesday, cancelled his travel plans after the party high command expressed displeasure over his supporters “boycotting” the Congress Legislature Party meeting to initiate the process for finding his successor.