Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that he is ready to contest a fourth time from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in 2024, which could be his last, and that he will win in any case, even if he has to fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tharoor said this while taking part in a TV channel discussion on his future plans. “I am ready to contest again from here, but the final decision will be made by the party and if I am asked, I will. This would be my last contest to the Lok Sabha,” said Tharoor.
To a question about speculations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could contest from Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor said, “Even if Modi is to contest against me, I will win.”
“I am contesting on my record and the people have all the right to change me, if they think so, but it would not be based on who I am fighting with,” added Tharoor.
“When I contested first, my wish was to be the Union Minister for External Affairs, which did not happen, now it is for the people to decide.”
And, when asked if he is keen to contest for the Kerala Assembly, he said, “At the moment my focus is on the Lok Sabha polls and depending on the circumstances then, at that time, will look into it,” added Tharoor.
A former undersecretary general at the United Nations, Tharoor was a surprise choice when he flew into India and after meeting the then Congress top brass secured a party ticket to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram.
Since then, he has completed a hat-trick of wins and the only difficult time he had to face was in 2014 after the untimely death of his wife Sunanda Phuskar at a hotel in Delhi.
Tharoor’s style of functioning as a Lok Sabha member was totally different from the usual Congress MPs and this appears not to have gone well with his fellows in his own party, but if one looks into his winning margin at the 2019 polls, it shows the average voter has not much of a problem with Tharoor and his style of functioning.
In the 2019 polls, he won with a margin of 99,989 votes, while in 2014 the margin was 15,470 and in his debut election in 2009 it was 99,998 votes.
Tharoor has already hit the pre-poll campaign as he has been seen at numerous venues so far.
With agency inputs