THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has cleared the first hurdle in the Congress presidential campaign by getting nearly 15 party leaders from Kerala propose his name in the nomination papers. However, this has left many in the state leadership red-faced.
Tharoor is elated over the development and is confident of garnering more support in the secret ballot to be held on October 17. A week ago, the majority of state Congress leaders were under the impression that Tharoor would not succeed in getting even a single supporter from the 319 KPCC members.
Tharoor personally spoke to them which saw two MPs M K Raghavan and Hibi Eden, senior ‘A’ group leader from Thiruvananthapuram Thampanoor Ravi, Kozhikode-based ‘A’ group leaders K C Abu, K M Ummar, Nanu Master, Ratnavalli Teacher and Balakrishnan Kidavu, endorsing him.
‘It would be good if Tharoor withdraws his candidature’
Besides them, Tharoor also got the support of MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan and Youth Congress vice-president K S Sabarinadhan. It is reliably learnt that a majority of the Kozhikode-based leaders are unhappy with the way senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy has been promoting incumbent state working president T Siddique, who is also from the district. This is a big blow to Oommen Chandy as these senior leaders, are peeved with him for sidelining them.
“I was collecting signatures from across the country ever since I collected the nomination papers, which led me to file it on the last day. I filed five sets of nominations. The sixth set reached two minutes late. Altogether, 60 signatures were collected”, said Tharoor to TNIE.
State Congress working president Kodikunnil Suresh, MP, who is also the chief whip of the party in Lok Sabha, urged Tharoor to withdraw his nomination. He didn’t have any qualms in comparing Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge and maintained that the latter is the dalit face of the party who is the “ideal” candidate to become the Congress president. The Congress top brass wanted to project a dalit face when the BJP had brought in Droupadi Murmu as the country’s President.
State Congress president K Sudhakaran told TNIE that just because Tharoor got a few proposers from Kerala does not mean that they would vote for him. “These leaders were in a predicament when Tharoor sought their support. Tharoor had met me in person. I explained to him my difficulty in supporting him and he was convinced. It would be good if he withdraws his candidature,” he said.