After 26 years, Congress to get a president from south India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the last date of filing of nominations to the post of Congress President ending on Friday, it is certain that the next party chief will be from south India, and after more than a quarter of a century.

P.V. Narashima Rao was the last one to have occupied this post from South India from 1992 to 1996 and now it will be a fight between party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge who hails from Karnataka and Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor.

Tharoor made it clear, soon after filing his papers, that he will not pull out of the race and has his own vision for the party which he will share with all delegates.

And with the Rajya Sabha veteran Kharge being the "official" candidate of the Nehru-Gandhi family, he is also not going to withdraw and this makes a contest when around 9,100 Congress voters will decide who among the two should be their chief.