The list of Congress leaders making a bid for All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidential polls finally has come down to just two names and one of them, Shashi Tharoor, seems to be struggling to get elected representatives from his home state of Kerala to support him. A majority of the senior leaders and a few juniors too from the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee have publicly expressed support for the other candidate, senior Karnataka leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
After former Union Minister AK Antony extended support to Kharge, another senior leader from Kerala, Ramesh Chennithala, also threw his weight behind Kharge saying that a person with his wealth of experience and leadership skills can make contributions that will be a great asset to the Congress. Veteran leader from Kerala Oommen Chandy has also endorsed Kharge, saying that he is one of the senior leaders who have the experience and ability to lead the Congress in the present era of crisis.
“It is understood that his nomination was a deliberate decision taken by all the senior leaders. Congress colleagues should be told to support senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge. For so long it has been alleged that the Gandhi family is running everything. In contrast, the fact that the Gandhi family is standing aside and the Congress will get a new president is a matter of historical significance. So the Congress will get more strength and power,” the veteran Congress leader and Haripad MLA said. Chennithala added that Tharoor was given a party seat to contest for the first time when he was the KPCC president. He said that Tharoor’s talents have been recognised by the party and that will not change because of the elections.
Seven-time Lok Sabha MP Kodikunnil Suresh too openly supported Kharge and said that he is the Dalit face of the party. “After Jagjivan Ram, Kharge is the first person from Dalit background set be become the Congress President. Given this, Tharoor should consider withdrawing from the race,” Suresh said.
On Saturday, October 1, Tharoor found the first senior leader to endorse his candidature. In a Facebook post, MK Raghavan, MP, said he is happy to have kept the word given to Tharoor over support to his candidature. Raghavan said Tharoor had told him that the election of the president through a democratic process would increase the party’s public support and he agreed. “I will feel proud if a Malayali becomes the president of the party after Sir C Sankaran Nair, who was elevated to the post during the AICC Conference held in Amaravati [in 1897],” he said.
Tharoor also seems to have found some support from the younger crop in the party such as former MLA and Youth Congress leader KS Sabarinadhan and from Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, who took to Facebook to share a photograph of Tharoor as a way of showing his support to his colleague.
Sabarinadhan, speaking to TNM recently, had said that the Congress needs someone who can take a strong stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Tharoor would be able to address this. “Tharoor is one of the most vocal voices against the BJP and someone who can bring different anti-BJP forces together. He will be able to bring the people together and knowing his working style, he can also bring different ideas together and revive leadership at the regional level,” he had said.
Senior leader and former KPCC chief Mullappally Ramachandran also refused to support Tharoor’s candidature. He called Tharoor politically erratic and accused him of siding with the LDF government in the past.
Tharoor has had a checkered relationship with his party colleagues in Kerala. His praise of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has landed him in trouble in the past. Senior party leaders had even warned the Thiruvananthapuram MP to ‘toe the party line’ or face consequences. Resentment against Tharoor had escalated with the Congress party’s stand on the Kerala government’s Silverline project. Even as the Congress staged protests against the LDF government and 17 MPs from the state had written to the Union Minister of Railways registering their protest against the project, Tharoor had refused to sign the letter.