THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At first, the mood was subdued even as the news kept trickling in of Shashi Tharoor making headway and trouncing the vote share of the two other candidates - NDA candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan and CPI candidate C Divakaran. Although Kummanam Rajasekharan had a slight lead in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency as counting progressed in the Lok Sabha elections, the scenario changed 45 minutes into the counting. Shashi Tharoor's vote share increased and continued to increase steadily.
Party supporters heaved a sigh of relief as the vote share started spiking. They sat huddled, their eyes fixed on at the news channel which tracked the counting. Still, even as excitement started to pick up, the two-time parliamentarian Tharoor chose to stay away from public and media glare. Even as the youth brigade of the Congress struck up a show with fist pumping and sloganeering in front of Tharoor's flat, he chose to remain insulated from the excitement, a silent wait for a win he was so sure of.
Earlier in the morning, a confident Tharoor strode into his flat, after paying a visit to a few temples in the city. "I will meet you after having food," he said to the media personnel who had pitched camp at his residence. But for hours he remained inside his flat, as the counting progressed, watching the battle unfold in the screen from the comforts of his room. Senior Congress leaders and well-wishers walked in, offering support, moving into the deep recesses of the flat to meet Tharoor.
Even as time ebbed away, people kept shuffling into Tharoor's residence, while many waited out inside the flat to get a glimpse of the candidate. "He will come only after at least 75 per cent of the counting is complete," Tharoor's aide kept reiterating. Amidst all the excitement, ten-year-old Adarsh Anikuttan stood clutching onto a packet he had brought in. Nicely secured in a newspaper packet was a shawl he had bought to wrap around Tharoor. Ask the fanboy why he chose to wait out to see Tharoor. Pat comes the reply "He is intelligent!".
Around 3 pm, once definite of his win, Tharoor emerged, smiling from ear to ear, as he was welcomed by feisty slogans. A very confident Tharoor said that he was sure of the win even while he was out campaigning. “Last year, it was like a T20 match, but this time, another cricket analogy comes to the mind. Our team got a century, but it could not win,” said Tharoor indicating the defeat UPA suffered in the national milieu. Thanking the people for placing their trust on him for the third time, Tharoor said that by electing him and other UDF candidates, Kerala was sending out a strong message. “I assure you of a bright future for Thiruvananthapuram and I will work as sincerely as I have been for the past 10 years,” he said.