THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The latest controversy surrounding MP Shashi Tharoor’s part-time personal staffer, Shiv Kumar Prasad, getting embroiled in a gold smuggling incident has definitely dented his image ahead of the Lok Sabha poll outcome. It also saw Tharoor’s rival BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar taking potshots at him. Interestingly, LDF candidate, Pannian Raveendran did not react to the controversy.
After more than a month-long hiatus, the Lok Sabha candidates will return to their constituency in the next few days ahead of the counting of votes on June 4. Tharoor was caught unawares when his former personal staffer was arrested by the Delhi police on Thursday. He immediately took to ‘X’ and clarified that he was in Dharamshala for campaigning when the shocking incident on his former staffer snowballed into a controversy. By evening the investigating officials let off Shiv Kumar, which obviously led Tharoor to let out a sigh of relief. Even when his political detractors targeted Tharoor, he remained unfazed and tweeted about “interesting times ahead” implying political activist Yogendra Yadav’s estimation that the NDA may not get the 272 majority mark.
For the past month, every Malayali’s favourite question has been on who is going to be the winner in Thiruvananthapuram. The long wait of over 35 days has left not only the candidates rattled, but also put the voters on tenterhooks. After the second phase election got over in Kerala on April 26, Tharoor had expressed his disappointment in the electoral process getting unnecessarily prolonged. Over the last one month, Tharoor campaigned extensively in Dharamshala and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Amritsar in Punjab. He also went on a campaign trail in Bihar, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. Tharoor told TNIE that it was not exhausting entirely, but still it was exciting.
“It was interesting to meet the Congress candidates as well as allies of the INDIA bloc. I did a variety of things ranging from padayatras, road shows, press conferences, interviews, interactions with youths as well as professionals,” said Tharoor.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar did not bat an eyelid to target Tharoor where he alleged that INDIA bloc is funded by gold smugglers. Rajeev had come to Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday on a whirlwind trip to attend a party meeting. A source close to him told TNIE that he had been busy with campaigning in five states. “Rajeev Chandrasekhar had been entrusted with the responsibility of campaigning in New Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat. He is confident of trouncing Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat,” said a source close to Rajeev.
Pannian was keen to speak about everything except the winning prospects with TNIE. “Will a candidate stand in an election to get defeated? Over the past one month, I never had a break from attending party programmes, marriages, funerals and cultural programmes. So, I was never in a holiday mood. Election means a fight to emerge victorious,” said Pannian.
With all three candidates exuding confidence in creating history in Thiruvananthapuram, all eyes are on what’s going to be the outcome on June 4.