Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to file his nomination for the Congress president's election on Friday, 30 September, sources in the Congress told The Quint.
Kharge's name was finalised after a phone call with interim Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, late on Thursday evening.
A source close to Rahul Gandhi confirmed that the former party president is also in support of Kharge's candidature.
While Kharge was always in the fray as one of the potential candidates who might contest with the Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi's tacit backing, sources told The Quint that his name was effectively confirmed by Sonia Gandhi only late on Thursday.
This happened after a great deal of back and forth between Sonia Gandhi and a few other candidates she had in mind, including Mukul Wasnik and Kumari Selja.
This took place after Gandhi's meeting with Rajasthan leader Sachin Pilot.