By Sanu V.George Thiruvananthapuram 30 Aug : There’s no dull moment when Thiruvananthapuram Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor writes or speaks and it was the same this time around when he expressed his opinion in a daily in the local language on the necessity of a contest for the top post in the party.
The moment the report was made public, it led to speculation he may put his hat in the ring to compete for the top job however, on Tuesday he spoke to the media: “I never said that I would contest, but the rest can be discussed in the future,” said Tharoor before leaving the ring.
However, one will need to wait for a while to find out whether Tharoor really in the race as the deadline for filing of nominations for the top position is on September 30, as per the announcement released by AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C.Venugopal.
The situation is likely to be more clear in the days ahead as Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yotra will begin at Kanyakumari on the 7th of September and will reach the Kerala border on September 11.It will encompass 43 Assembly constituencies as well as 12 Lok Sabha and will cover 453 km in 19 days.
A political analyst on the condition of confidentiality pointed out Tharoor from the moment he was a candidate in the Lok sabha election in 2009, he has never been an individual who was loved by a large section of the frontline Congress leaders in the region.
“And this is evident every time he is able to participate in the elections and that he was able to win in 2014 as well as in 2019.
The reason he succeeds every time is due to the nature of his personality and ability to garner a large vote from the young voters, the political voters as well as women voters.The only occasion that women voters did not vote for his side was during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as it was held just a few weeks following the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar died and his margin of victory dipped from nearly one thousand of votes to about 15,000, however in the year 2019 he again came out on top with an advantage of more than 90,000 votes.” said the analyst.
However, the analyst points out that, at present even although the Congress party in Kerala remains led by faction leaders, there has not been any open protests towards the Gandhi family even though veterans such as P.J.Kurien and the now disaffected K.V.Thomas have expressed reservations.
“That could be a problem for Tharoor because of his experience, as veterans such as A.K.Antony, Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala as well as leaders like K.Sudhakaran (State party president) and the Leader of the Opposition V.D.Satheesan are very unlikely to oppose the Gandhi family.If Tharoor decides to run, he will have to fight against the candidate who has the full support of the Gandhis and it’s a safe assumption that the odds for Tharoor to win votes from his state party members is a lot more difficult than getting votes from his local people,” added the analyst.
So, one has to wait for a while to find out whether Tharoor will actually compete or if this was just his usual humorous remarks that have led to his stock rising.
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