Disappointed, not disheartened: Shashi Tharoor on Congress Presidential poll race

Amid speculation that the top brass in Congress already has its "official candidate" for the the party's presidential polls, senior leader and MP Shashi Tharoor, a frontrunner in the contest, said that "some people in the party are implying" so and that he had "no choice but to take the word of my party president and the Gandhi family" (who have declared that there is no 'official candidate'). Tharoor, however, accepted that the party chief polls were off to a shaky start.

Even as Tharoor towed the party line, he hinted that the establishment was bound to rally behind senior leaders.

"I have always expected that there would be a senior leader in the race, the establishment was bound to rally behind him. And that's apparent with the signatures collected on his (Mr Kharge's) nomination form, the people who accompanied him to submit it, and the behaviour of party colleagues on the campaign trail," he told NDTV.

Read | 'Gandhi family blessing me and Kharge,' says Shashi Tharoor

On whether he was asked to pull out of the race, Tharoor denied that he was explicitly asked but said that even if he were, he wouldn't back down. However, he added that those rallying behind him did face flak for their support.

"Many people stuck their necks out for me and received calls from other grandees telling them 'Why did you do this?'," he said.

Calling out those siding with his rival Mallakrjun Kharge, Tharoor said he was 'disappointed and not disheartened' over peers like Manish Tewari, who were alongside him part of the G-23, backing Kharge.

Also Read: Contest with Tharoor is for betterment of country and Congress: Mallikarjun Kharge

Tharoor later again reiterated that there was no bias by the Gandhi family in the party election. "My interactions with the Gandhi family have convinced me that there is no bias from them towards either me or Kharge," he told the media after meeting party functionaries at the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee office in Mumbai on Sunday.

"The BJP should start preparing for being a part of the opposition as they will have to sit there after the 2024 elections," Tharoor said.

"Our party needs change and I feel I am the one who will be the catalyst of change," he told reporters in Maharashtra.