Kozhikode: Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said that he has not stitched a coat for the Chief Minister's post. He was replying to Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala's remarks mocking his apparent early jockeying for Kerala CM's chair.
"I haven't stitched any coat for the CM post. I wasn't aware that our chief ministers wear coats. I'm not sure who stitched the coat and when," Tharoor said.
The Congress MP also added that he was attending functions and events as the public were inviting him."I'll continue to attend events if the public invite me. I've been attending events for the past 14 years. This is nothing new," he said.
The MP was speaking to the media here during the second leg of his Malabar tour.
What Chennithala, others had said
Senior leaders of the Congress party, including Chennithala, had attacked Tharoor for expressing his willingness to make a bid for Kerala chief ministership in time for the next state polls.
"We need a collective effort to win, that has to be the priority. No one has to claim what position they will hold in four years because there is no certainty about the future of Kerala or the country. If someone has stitched a coat for the CM post, they should leave it behind and work toward success in the parliamentary election," Ramesh Chennithala had said on Friday.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran termed it inappropriate for leaders to decide a post and constituency for themselves in the state elections without discussing with the party.
Meanwhile, KC Venugopal urged "every Congress person" to "take up the responsibility to not shatter our dreams". "We can discuss anything in our party. We must not give the media a chance to debate the things that are spoken between Congress leaders."
"Impossible for BJP to replicate 2019 triumph"
Meanwhile, Tharoor also predicted the BJP could be upset in the General Election due in 2024.
It will be "impossible" for the BJP to replicate its 2019 electoral triumph in 2024, Tharoor said while speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival here on Friday, adding it is "conceivable" that the ruling party can lose "50 seats" in the Lok Sabha.
Tharoor also said while he concedes the BJP's dominance, it is also a fact that they have lost many states and them losing the central government is not impossible.
"If you look at how well they (the BJP) did in 2019, they have essentially had every seat in Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan; or all but one seat in Bihar, MP (Madhya Pradesh), Maharashtra; and 18 seats in Bengal.
"Now, all of those results are impossible to replicate and the BJP dropping below the majority in 2024 is entirely possible," Tharoor argued during a session titled 'India@75: A walk through the Democratic Institutions'.
'Freak victory in 2019'
Tharoor, 66, also explained why the BJP won't find the going easy in 2024. He termed the Pulwama terror attacks and India's Balakot strike (within Pakistan territory) which he said led to a "tremendous wave" at the last minute — a "freak" that won't be repeated in 2024 — in favour of the BJP.
Opposition unity a mirage?
However, on the important question of whether the opposition parties, which Tharoor predicts will trump the BJP from its majority position, will stay together is something that he said is "impossible to answer".
"If the BJP is at 250 and the others are at 290... will those 290 agree or would the BJP be able to pick 20 here and 10 there from parties that want favours from the central government of the day and then form the government. We don't know," he stated.
The BJP had won 303 seats out of 543 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections while the Congress only managed 52.
Billed as one of Asia's biggest literature meets, the Kerala Literature Festival is hosting an eclectic mix of literary and culture icons ranging from Nobel laureates, Booker Prize-winning writers, senior politicians to historians, film personalities, diplomats and artists.
(With PTI inputs.)