Shashi Tharoor gets nomination forms collected for Cong president poll

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday got the nomination forms for the AICC presidential poll collected from the party headquarters here, all but confirming an electoral face-off for the top party post with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Tharoor's close aide Aalim Javeri collected the forms from the office of the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry at the AICC headquarters here on the first day of the start of the nomination process.

After over two decades, the Congress is set to see a contest for the post of party chief with Rajasthan Chief Minister Gehlot, who has announced his candidature, expected to take on Tharoor.

Tharoor on Monday had met Sonia Gandhi and expressed his intention to contest poll, while the Congress president conveyed that she would stay "neutral" in the elections, according to sources.

Sonia Gandhi welcomed the idea of more people contesting the poll and dispelled the notion that there would be an "official candidate".