Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was seen dancing while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in his constituency Thiruvananthapuram. Mr Tharoor, in a white kurta, was seen dancing to the tunes of the Oscar-winning song ‘Jai Ho’. A group of Congress workers, most of them women and children, was seen dancing around him.
#WATCH | Kerala: Congress MP and candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor joins his supporters in a dance while campaigning in the constituency.#LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/oOWBDJnTax
— ANI (@ANI) April 22, 2024
Mr Tharoor is locked in a three-way contest with BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran in the prized Thiruvananthapuram seat.
Mr Raveendran won the seat in 2005. While the BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, the party registered a victory in the Thiruvananthapuram district just once, with O Rajagopal winning the Nemam assembly seat in 2016.
Mr Tharoor, who is seeking a record record fourth straight term from Thiruvananthapuram, was recently asked how he would beat the ‘fatigue factor’. He insisted that fatigue settles in when there is stagnancy, and “my terms as MP have seen anything but that”.
“My primary concern has been the well-being of my voters, and I am confident that the people of Thiruvananthapuram will again repose their confidence in me,” he said.
The Congress and the CPI are in alliance at the national level as part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) but in Kerala, they are contesting against each other as part of the rival state blocs – United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Shashi Tharoor has been holding several roadshows and rallies in Kerala and several top Congress leaders, including party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, have been canvassing for him in the run-up to the general election in Kerala on April 26 – the second phase of the seven-phase elections. The Lok Sabha election results will be declared on June 4.
