THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite a UDF wave across Kerala, there is a pall of gloom among senior Congress leaders assembled at Indira Bhavan, the party's state headquarters, as two stalwarts Shashi Tharoor and K Muraleedharan are trailing.
The initial jubilant feeling among Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala, UDF convener MM Hassan and KPCC general secretary TU Radhakrishnan has faded. More than the senior leaders trailing, the thought of the lotus blooming in the state has given anxious moments to the Congress leadership.
Though Tharoor is trailing behind the NDA's Rajeev Chandrashekhar in Thiruvananthapuram by 24,000 votes, the Congress camp is hopeful that the situation will change once counting of votes in the coastal belt begins. Tharoor has not reached the party state headquarters. It should be recalled that Tharoor had won by close to one lakh votes during his 2019 outing.
Meanwhile, Muraleedharan is in third place in Thrissur where BJP candidate Suresh Gopi is leading by 56,000 votes over his CPI rival Sunil Kumar.
At the stock taking meeting convened by the state Congress leadership a week after the state went to the polls, Muraleedharan had come out against the Thrissur DCC leadership especially against local chief Jose Valloor and incumbent Thrissur MP T N Prathapan. He had alleged that these two leaders had not fully cooperated during his election campaign. In fact, Muraleedharan's sister, Padmaja Venugopal who recently joined the saffron camp, too had warned him about these two Thrissur-based leaders.
Senior leader Ramesh Chennithala, UDF convener M M Hassan, KPCC general secretary (organization) T U Radhakrishnan, executive committee member Manacaud Suresh and a slew of local leaders are glued in front of television channels. But the strides made by the INDIA bloc at the national level have given a sense of pride to Congress state leaders.