New Delhi: Months after unsuccessfully challenging Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in the bitterly fought elections for party’s top post, Shashi Tharoor has kept the Congress Working Committee (CWC) pot boiling. With his recent comments, Tharoor has thrown an apparent curve ball at Kharge on his own prospects of being nominated to the high-powered panel.
Last week, Tharoor ruled out fighting the CWC elections, but on Sunday, speaking to the media in Thiruvananthapuram, he asserted that should he be offered a post in the CWC, he would not turn it down.
The CWC — the Congress party’s highest decision-making body — consists of the party president, the leader of the party in Parliament, and 23 members, of which 12 are elected and 11 are nominated by the president.
Congress insiders say Tharoor’s statements on his CWC aspirations (or the lack of it) and the real possibility of the entire committee being nominated mean that his exclusion might give rise to speculation about whether it is related to his challenge to Kharge last October.
The last time elections to the CWC were held was in 1997.
On the other hand, given the cold response Tharoor’s trips to Kerala have evoked in the party’s state unit and the perception that this treatment was a result of “tacit” feelers from a senior leader in Delhi, his inclusion may not be a straightforward decision either, say party sources.
ThePrint reached Tharoor over the phone through calls for comments. This article will be updated when a response is received.
However, sources close to him told ThePrint that the statements have merely come in response to questions from the media where there has been “a lot of speculation” on the issue.
“He has always made his point clear that he is for elections — which is why he had contested the president polls — but at the end of the day it is also true that the need is for the party to revive (the organisation) and given that there is just a year to the Lok Sabha polls, it is for the party to decide on whether it will take the nomination route to CWC or otherwise,” said the source.
Congress sources also say Tharoor has not so far been sounded out on the issue in any way.
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‘Kharge doesn’t hold grudges’
The elections for a party president in October last year were the first in over two decades. Kharge received 7,897 votes but Tharoor sprang a surprise by getting 1,072 votes.
Tharoor has since made multiple trips to Kerala much to the chagrin of the state leadership who claimed that they were not kept in the loop about his trips. General secretary in charge of the state, Tariq Anwar submitted a report to the Congress president on the issue in January, the contents of which remain unknown.
However, sources in Congress say that while the election was indeed bitter — Tharoor even alleged irregularities — but what happened then is over and done with. There is no reason for that contest to impinge on Tharoor’s chances of making or not making it to the CWC, they say.
“The Congress president is not somebody who holds personal grudges. Revival of the party organisation is his intent and he will do what is best for the party,” said a senior leader.
Giving an instance in this regard, the source cited the dinner held for opposition parties ahead of the culmination of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar, and how Kharge had insisted on Saifuddin Soz being called for it.
Notably, Soz has been among the leaders who signed nomination papers in support of Tharoor’s candidacy during the presidential polls.
When Kharge’s office found out that Soz was abroad visiting his daughter, an invitation was extended to his son Salman. Salman Soz had been one of the election agents for Tharoor, the source cited above added. Salman Soz was initially surprised but did make it to the dinner, the source said.
CWC elections will be held only if there are enough nominations filed to necessitate a contest, party sources told ThePrint.
In the past, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has on many occasions asked the Congress president to nominate all members of the CWC. When elections happen, all AICC members vote for the nominees in order of preference and the top 12 are selected to the body.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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