A clash of contrasts for Congress chief's post

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 30

Congress presidential election will witness a clash between two contrasting personalities—the rustic, connected to grassroots, Scheduled Caste leader Mallikarjun Kharge and a flamboyant, former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor who comes from upper caste Nair community in Kerala.

Symbolism is writ large on Congress Party’s move to project Kharge, 80, who looks a clear winner over Tharoor, 66, with the might of the Gandhis and the party’s electoral college tilted heavily in favour of the former.

While Tharoor is a rank outsider in the Congress and joined the party only in 2009, winning the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat thrice (he is into his third term now), Kharge is a thoroughbred Congressman who joined the party in 1969 as Gulbarga city Congress chief. A political heavyweight from Karnataka, where he was MLA for nine terms over 37 years from 1972 to 2009, Kharge could never become the chief minister but is well on his way to assume party presidency now.

Rising through the grind of Congress politics, Kharge entered the national scene only in 2009 when he won Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat and retained it in 2014.

He was a union minister during his first stint in LS and leader of the house after the Congress was decimated to 44 MPs in the 2014 general elections.

In 2019, Kharge lost the first ever election in his entire career and was rewarded with Leader of Opposition post in Rajya Sabha—which he has held since February 2021.

A man of humble beginnings from Bidar’s Varavatti, Kharge is famous in the Congress for absolute loyalty to the Gandhis and ummatched resilience.

Despite losing out to colleagues SM Krishna and Siddharamaiah in the Karnataka Congress race, Kharge never rebelled against the party.

Tharoor, in contrast, joined the G-23 group, seen as challenging the authority of Sonia Gandhi.

Articulate and frank in his opinions, Tharoor has had a baggage of controversies with some of his pro-Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarks not going down well with the Congress.

Even today, as soon as he filed the papers for party president’s post, the BJP flagged the omission of parts of J&K and Ladakh in the map of India printed on the manifesto Tharoor circulated to Congress delegates who will vote in the party chief’s election on October 17. Tharoor made light of the criticism saying “no one does these things on purpose” and apologized unconditionally. The development, however, signalled once again that Tharoor and controversy are no strange bedfellows.