THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With Shashi Tharoor launching a parliament election-like campaign in the Congress presidential poll, an interesting situation has evolved in Kerala. The party leadership in the state has rallied behind the Gandhi family nominee, Mallikarjun Kharge, while the common Congress workers have thrown their weight behind the Thiruvanathapuram MP. Over the past few days, Tharoor is all over the social media with scores of people urging him to bring in change and transparency as well as instill young blood in the party.
Though the top Congress leaders in Kerala are putting up a brave face, they are surpised at the support Tharoor is gaining at the grass-root level, and allege it’s the handiwork of the CPM and the BJP supporters. Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said the massive support for Tharoor in social media will not reflect in the presidential polls. “Tharoor is definitely an intellectual par excellence and also an asset to the party. But what’s his Congress background? He may be having a huge fanbase in social media who incidentally are not voters in the election,” Satheesan told TNIE. Satheesan’s predecessor Ramesh Chennithala, who is slated to campaign for Kharge in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, has also challenged Tharoor’s claim that he is the “ideal” choice for the Congress president post.
Tharoor meets Chandy, other seniors
Chennithala told TNIE that he became a Congress Working Committee leader at a very young age after holding several posts, step by step. “Tharoor is yet to hold any post at the organisational level. So how is it possible to directly contest for the Congress president’s post? We don’t endorse his opinion that he is the ideal candidate for the president post.” he said. Meanwhile, Tharoor met several senior leaders like Vakkom Purushothaman, Thennala Balakrishna Pillai and Oommen Chandy seeking their support.
He even visited Punalur in Kollam to pay respects to former sate secretary Punalur Madhu, who died on Monday. The Congress leadership in Kerala claims Tharoor will secure only 10% of the total 309 votes in the state. However, Tharoor loyalist Thampanoor Ravi said numbers do not matter.
“Election to the post of the Congress president is happening after 22 years. Tharoor has shown the guts to contest. There’s nothing wrong as the national leadership has been saying time and again that anyone can contest in the election which is being held democratically,” Ravi, who originally belongs to the Oommen Chandy faction, told TNIE. On Thursday, Tharoor is slated to meet party leaders in Chennai.