Thiruvananthapuram: On October 4, when Shashi Tharoor reached Indira Bhavan, the headquarters of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, to collect his identity card for voting for the Congress presidential election, he was in for a surprise. There were more than 1000 Youth Congress and Congress workers waiting at the Indira Bhavan to welcome Tharoor.
When the Congress senior leadership in Kerala played hide and seek with Tharoor, not ready to openly say that their allegiance rests with the party's senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the common Congress workers seem too eager to support Tharoor in the race to the party's top post. Congress leadership in Kerala is keen to express solidarity with the Nehru family, knowing well that their choice for the president's post is that of Kharge.
While the party seniors of the State unit refuse to budge to the growing popularity of Tharoor among the youth, Tharoor has also found open support in the relatively young crop of leaders in Kerala. Though Ernakulam MP Hibi Eaden, Kozhikode MP K Raghavan and Mathew Kuzhalnadan MLA had earlier voiced in favour of Tharoor, the party seniors are understood have managed them. The two Parliamentarians and the Legislator are not ready to reiterate their support.
Yet, the younger Congress cadres lend their voice to Tharoor and they cheer all social media posts supporting Tharoor's candidature. Some had upped their game with trolling their 'rival' Kharge with the latter's age factor. A potshot in twitter reads: 'when 70-year-old Sonia goes out, comes the 80-year-old Kharge'.
The scare factor
There are 330 KPCC members in Kerala. Tharoor needed support signatures from 10 KPCC members. Instead, he got 17 of them. The main question being raised by the younger generation is 'why senior Congress leaders in Kerala are scared of Tharoor becoming the party president?' Presumably, their main apprehension is the possible backlash from the Nehru family for not supporting their candidate.
Even though Kharge is not the official candidate of the Nehru family, everyone knows who was behind his candidature. Leaders like Ramesh Chennithala and K Muraleedharan have already come out in the open against Tharoor. KPCC president, K Sudhakaran also categorically said that his choice would be Kharge. However, sources close to him say that he has softened his stance. The warning from the election committee president Madhusudhanan Mistry that no leaders should talk openly against the candidates has come in as a blessing in disguise for K Sudhakaran.
KPCC cannot direct any of its members officially to vote for a particular candidate. Kerala leaders are apprehensive about the national media attention and public support Tharoor is garnering close to the title race. Though they know well that it is the image of Tharoor as a global citizen from the country, the ego of the senior leaders is not ready to admit that.
The Congress unit in Kerala has always been a loyal to the Nehru family. However, when there is an acute need of overhauling the party, the younger generation believes that Tharoor has better acceptability among the party cadre than the 80-year-old Kharge. Senior Kerala leaders are also wary about the possibility of Tharoor even growing to claim the post of Chief Ministership in Kerala when UDF wins an Assembly election, which would be detrimental to their political future and hope.
The 'contest'
The main campaign material that works against Tharoor is that he never agreed to be tamed inside the party framework. Congress had also, on many occasions, put their feet in the mouth, when Tharoor showered effusive praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The other charge they level against Tharoor is that he may forage into any other political party for better provisions as he has no strong connection with the Congress party.
However, those who support Tharoor strongly believe that he could infuse a fresh lease of life into the party, build its energy, and instill confidence in the party besides bringing about a timely structural change. Tharoor had launched his election campaign from Nagpur which is birthplace of RSS that brought BJP to power back-to-back. Tharoor, according to his supporters, was sending a message to underline his stance that he is against BJP and its policies.
With all this support, mostly from the party cadre who has no voting rights, it would be a Himalayan task for Tharoor to garner the support of the majority of 9000-plus voters. While political pundits and party insiders call a near-sure loss for Tharoor, it remains to be seen whether the Thiruvananthapuram MP can prove them wrong.
