Amid a row over his remarks praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala, senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said he was available for the party, but warned he had "options" if it did not require his services.
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00:00Is everything fine between Congress and Shashi Tharoor?
00:02Why is Tharoor praising his opponents?
00:04Is Shashi Tharoor going to quit Congress?
00:06Is he going to BJP or CPM?
00:08That's what everyone interested in politics is asking today.
00:11But how did it all start?
00:12We'll tell you everything in today's episode.
00:14Hello, I'm Nishant Shekhar and you're watching Politico.
00:23So it so happened that Tharoor recently wrote an article
00:25praising the LDF government in Kerala.
00:27Now if you praise the government of the enemy party,
00:29your own party will definitely get upset.
00:31You're doing it wrong.
00:33The Congress people got angry.
00:34On top of that, Tharoor also praised
00:35Modiji's meeting with Donald Trump.
00:37Press statements by both the Prime Minister
00:39and by President Trump are very encouraging.
00:42In Congress, he praised Modiji.
00:44This is a crime.
00:45So what happened next?
00:46The senior leadership called Tharoor for a meeting.
00:48Tharoor met with Rahul Gandhi.
00:50And I don't know if he got scolded in the meeting
00:52because he said no comments.
00:54I have no comment to make at this time.
00:57Thank you very much.
00:58He must have got scolded.
00:59He didn't praise the government.
01:01Anyway, amid all this Indian Express,
01:02Tharoor's podcast came out in which he made tall claims.
01:05Tharoor said in the Kerala leadership battle,
01:07he was ahead of others.
01:08And claimed that those who were against Congress
01:10also voted for him in the general elections.
01:13But what raised many eyebrows when he said,
01:14if Congress doesn't need me, he has other options.
01:17Was this led to a speculation that
01:19Gulam Ravi Azad, Jyotiraditya Siddia, R.P.N. Singh
01:22and Captain Amrinder Singh
01:23will make Sashi Tharoor say bye-bye to Congress?
01:25Although Tharoor has dismissed all such speculations,
01:28but on February 22, he posted a cryptic tweet
01:30which stated,
01:31where ignorance is bliss,
01:32this folly to be wise.
01:34People got even more confused
01:35as to what he was trying to say.
01:37But if you follow Kerala politics,
01:38you can understand what Tharoor was trying to say.
01:41Kerala has elections next year
01:42and party is not taking him very seriously.
01:44So why not do some adventure?
01:46Recently, he was removed from the
01:48All India Professional Congress.
01:49On top of that, party high command
01:50is not clarifying their expectations from him.
01:52So what option is left?
01:53Either CPM or BJP.
01:55Let's speak to our reporter about
01:57options that Tharoor has.
01:58Shibi Mubal, can we say is all well
02:00between Congress and Sashi Tharoor?
02:02He's pushing to consider him also as
02:05one of the CM candidate for the next year's
02:08Kerala Assembly elections because
02:10you know, he clearly says that
02:12there's no leader for the Congress in Kerala
02:15though there are many faces for the party here in Kerala.
02:18He says, you know, there is
02:20there's already discussions going on
02:22that it might be a, you know, LDF 3.0.
02:25The left government might come back to power
02:26one more time, which means it will be
02:29a major setback for the Congress.
02:30So he tries to make use of those discussions
02:33saying that, you know,
02:35Congress might have leaders,
02:36Congress might have faces,
02:37but it's very important to have a face
02:40that can attract neutral voters also.
02:42That's why he takes up his case very seriously
02:44saying that in Tiruvanamalai,
02:46it's not just the Congress votes
02:47that he has been getting,
02:49he's managing to get neutral votes
02:51and also votes of those people
02:53have never voted for the Congress.
02:54That is personal aura or personal,
02:57you know, achievements that has impressed the people,
03:00that has been appealing to the people.
03:02So somebody like that should be placed.
03:04I have it in me.
03:05If you don't make use of it,
03:07I'll look for, I have other options.
03:08What are the possibilities of
03:10Tharoor switching over to CPM or the BJP?
03:14Definitely not.
03:15If it happens, it happens with the BJP only.
03:17If BJP manages to like rope in Shashi Tharoor,
03:21how beneficial it is going to be
03:23for the Saffron party in Kerala?
03:24In Kerala, what it will do is,
03:26it's the fact that it will attract
03:27a lot of neutral voters and also
03:30a lot of, you know, youngsters who are
03:32admirers of Shashi Tharoor,
03:34the author, the diplomat,
03:36everything else other than a politician,
03:39Shashi Tharoor, the politician.
03:40So that will definitely be a boost
03:42because one thing that they've been struggling here
03:44in Kerala is with, you know,
03:46they've not had a popular face.
03:47They've not had a very strong face in the state.
03:50So that problem of theirs will be solved
03:52to a major extent if he decides to join the BJP.
03:57You know, I think the difference
03:59will be among the neutral voters.
04:01The core party workers,
04:02the Congress and the left will not shift,
04:04but among the neutral voters.
04:06And also Tharoor, even when he's with the Congress,
04:10he tends to appreciate,
04:12we can't call him a full-time politician.
04:14Like, you know, he's not really a politician
04:18from head to toe.
04:19He's always been very appreciative of the Modi government
04:22as well as the left government
04:23whenever he feels they've done something good.
04:25So that's what he keeps saying,
04:27that, you know, I'm not a,
04:29like, you know, I'm not somebody
04:31who likes to point out just false.
04:33I'm somebody who likes to point out the good things also
04:36that's done by Modi government.
04:38So that way, his presence,
04:40if he joins the BJP at any cost,
04:43then I think the major boost will be a face for the party
04:47and neutral, you know,
04:49the influence it will create among,
04:51the impact it will create among the neutral voters.
04:54And also, you know,
04:57in Kerala, the problem with the BJP
04:58is it's being treated as a, you know,
05:00there's a right, you know,
05:02the communal Hindu party, Hindu extremist party.
05:05That's the kind of image.
05:06But when Tharoor comes into the group,
05:09it kind of changes also.
05:11Then you get that progressive,
05:14intellectual vibe to the party also
05:16among a very political audience in Kerala.
05:18So that will be a major boost if it happens.
05:21But yeah, I don't think that right now
05:25we have any concrete information
05:27that something like that will happen.