Shashi Tharoor, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram, wished former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in advance after he was unanimously elected as the new President of the BJP's Kerala unit on Monday.
"Congratulations and best wishes to the newly elected Kerala State President of the BJP, @RajeevRC_X. Looking forward to crossing swords again!" Tharoor posted on his X handle.
Interestingly, the two were intense competitors in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when Chandrasekhar was an unlikely challenger to Tharoor, a three-term MP looking to secure a fourth term in a row.
In the beginning, political commentators predicted an effortless win for Tharoor, who had won his third term in 2019 with an easy margin of almost 99,000 votes. Chandrasekhar, though hailing from Kerala, was considered an "outsider" since he had his long-time support base in Bengaluru. His only connection to the state was through his father-in-law, Nambiar, one of the major figures behind the once-famous electronics brand BPL.
But as the election campaign intensified, Chandrasekhar's base of support widened considerably, leaving Tharoor's camp nervous. On polling day, at times, Tharoor found himself lagging behind his BJP rival, but a last-minute vote rush from coastal areas secured his win by a much lower margin of some 16,000 votes—a considerable fall from his past win.
After his creditable performance, there was speculation that Chandrasekhar would return to contest public office yet again, this time from an Assembly constituency within the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat. But few expected him to quickly return to the top of politics as the BJP state president, particularly given his lack of experience in organizing the BJP at the grassroots level—a key ingredient to mobilizing BJP cadre in the field.
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