Congress leader Shashi Tharoor hours after filing his nomination for the party president post on Friday, issued a manifesto explaining how he intends to rejuvenate the party through decentralisation and internal reorganisation if he wins the election.
The senior leader filed his nomination at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office in the national capital.
His manifesto showed a distorted map of India, a part of Jammu & Kashmir has been omitted from it. However, Shashi Tharoor's office was quick enough to fix the massive blunder.
Minutes after releasing the initial manifesto, his office shared a revised map of India which then included the omitted part of J&K in it.
“There is a need for decentralisation in this party. We are not an election machine for winning elections every five years. We must serve the people of India,” Tharoor said.
What does Shashi's manifesto explain?
He said the manifesto explains "how we hope to rejuvenate the party, to decentralize the organisation of the party".
"In my own efforts, I am guided by the crores of party workers who have taken the party through good times and bad and who are once again hoping for a renewed, dynamism and energy in the Congress party," he said addressing a press conference.
"This is what I hope to bring to and through my campaign. I have a vision for Congress, for the internal reorganisation of the congress, which I will send to every delegate. We are pleased that we have the signatures of party colleagues from Kashmir to Kerala and Punjab to Nagaland. I am here to be the voice of all the party workers," Tharoor added.
Tharoor will primarily take on another veteran leader of the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, for the party president post. Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi, too, has filed his nomination.
Earlier, Digvijaya Singh and Ashok Gehlot said that they have dropped out of the race.
BJP slams Tharoor:
BJP leader Amit Malaviya attacked Tharoor calling him a repeat offender. "He wants India splintered and has expressed his mind on more than one occasion," Malaviya said sharing an old poster of Congress' Bharat Bachao campaign which showed a similar map of India with omitted part of J&K.
In another tweet, Malviya wrote, "Shashi Tharoor, Congress’s presidential hopeful, puts a mutilated map of India in his manifesto. While Rahul Gandhi is supposedly on a Bharat Jodo Yatra, wannabe Congress President is hell bent on dismembering India. May be he thinks this might help find favour with the Gandhis…"
Tharoor files nomination:
Shashi Tharoor today filed his nomination for the post of Congress president at the party headquarters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP submitted his papers to the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry at his office at the AICC headquarters.
Amid sound of drumbeats and fanfare, he made an entry at the AICC headquarters.
Tharoor visited Rajghat in the morning and paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi ahead of filing his nomination papers for the party's presidential poll.
(With agency inputs)
