Tharoor wishes, party says leadership will dispose

A day after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor openly wished to contest Kerala Assembly polls, Opposition leader and senior Congress leader VD Satheesan said no one should declare his candidature by himself and that the decision on such matters would be taken by the party leadership.

“No one must declare candidature by himself. Party will decide on such matters. Those who got any suggestions can inform the party leadership,” Satheesan told media persons here on Tuesday.

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Buoyed by the support from religious and community leaders, Shashi Tharoor, on Monday, indicated that he is interested in contesting the next Kerala Assembly elections.

“When people advise me to be active in the state, how can I say I’m not interested? I am interested. Let’s see,” Tharoor told the media persons at Devalokam in Kottayam when asked whether he will fight the state election.

As part of his attempts to consolidate support from central Travancore, Shashi Tharoor paid a brief visit to the headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church at Devalokam and held a meeting with Baselios Mar Thoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan.

During the interaction, the Metropolitan said that the state unit of the Congress had been going through a phase of stagnation and urged Tharoor to work towards strengthening it.

Coming out against Sashi Tharoor’s statement that he is keen on focusing on Kerala and contesting for Assembly polls, senior Congress leader and UDF convenor MM Hassan said on Tuesday that if Shashi Tharoor is interested in contesting the Assembly polls, he should tell the party leadership and there is no need to tell it to the media and the people. He said that no one has the authority to announce the decision to contest the polls by themselves.

Clarifying his position regarding his entry into state politics, Shashi Tharoor has said that discussions will continue in this regard and the Congress party would take a decision on it.