Tharoor’s ‘Malabar tour’ creating ripples in Kerala Congress, but all not easy for him

Shashi Tharoor’s so-called whirlwind ‘Malabar tour’ has turned up heat among the party’s jittery state leaders who fear that the senior MP will soon eat up the substantial space they own in the leadership, if given an obstacle-free passage.

Just a month after he lost the Congress presidential polls, though after winning an impressive 1,072 votes, Tharoor has set his eyes on Kerala where the party’s new leadership in organisation and legislature is struggling, as they could not match the one led by Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala they displaced after Assembly polls.

As a middle-class icon, Tharoor’s supporters believe, he could attract people outside the Congress ecosystem to the party and would be a credible chief ministerial face but it will not be an easy ride for the diplomat-turned-politician.

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The central leadership is closely watching the developments in Kerala and so far has not made any adverse remarks against Tharoor’s “political tour” in northern Kerala, though his supporters allege that Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal is trying to cut the Thiruvananthapuram MP to size.

Tharoor’s Kerala bid is not the same this time, as he is on a better footing in the state compared to his Congress presidential bid and his national ambitions. At the national level, he was an underdog against a behemoth organisational structure, though he managed to have a good show.

In Kerala, youth leaders feel there is a leadership crisis in the Congress state unit, as both state president K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan are "not effective enough" to corner the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government.

Last year, the young and restive leaders forced a leadership change in the state bringing in Satheesan as Leader of Opposition replacing the veteran Chennithala, ignoring even the wishes of the latter’s otherwise bete noir Chandy. Sudhakaran was also appointed as new party chief but the euphoria soon made way for despair.

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While impatience of the leaders over the iron grip of Chennithala and Chandy and their failure to deliver in 2021 led to the change, the same set of people are now upset with their choice of new leaders for not giving a direction to the party. A number of youth leaders, including K Sabarinath and Hibi Eden, publicly supported Tharoor in the Congress presidential election.

In a way, Tharoor has gauged the mood in the state unit and knows who all could support him. Almost one-third of the over 300 delegates from Kerala are believed to have voted in his favour in the party presidential election.

The uneasiness in the state leadership was evident when it prevented the Youth Congress’s Kozhikode district unit from organising a seminar involving Tharoor and from the frequent criticism by a section of leaders. Satheesan, without naming Tharoor, said that they cannot allow anyone to conduct “parallel” programmes and revive factionalism in the state.

For the Kerala Congress leadership, the significance of Muslim League’s red carpet welcome when Tharoor visited its chief Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal at his residence was not missed. They have also noted the invitation to Tharoor by the influential Nair Service Society (NSS), as both had a frosty relationship till recently.

Interestingly, both Chandy and Chennithala are also watching the developments and are said to be happy with the way Tharoor has put the state leadership under pressure.