Shashi Tharoor

Coming out in his support was none other than his Lok Sabha colleague and former chief minister K.Karunakaran's son- K.Muraleedharan, who said Tharoor has his space in state politics. Not very pleased with the sudden arrival of Tharoor into state politics, Satheesan had said that someone, a creation of the media, can be compared to a balloon, which will burst with a prick of a pin, unlike others leaders in the state unit of the party who are there to stay.

Tharoor's demand has been backed by Kozhikode MP, M.K. Raghavan, who said that he would send a complaint to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in this matter. Raghavan also urged state Congress President K. Sudhakaran to constitute an inquiry commission to probe why the Kozhikode district committee of Youth Congress backed off from Tharoor's seminar.

The talks are gaining traction as on Wednesday, the party's first non-Gandhi family President in over two decades, Malikarjuna Kharge will take the top seat at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.

Shashi Tharoor thanked his volunteer team of party colleagues "for their amazing efforts against impossible odds to keep our campaign going and congratulated the Chief Election Authority, Madhusudan Mistry, and his colleagues for their efforts to make this possible."

The letter, shot off a day after the polling for the party chief, surfaced on Wednesday, the day of counting of votes. It alleged that there were unofficial persons present at booths who even intimated their supporters specially in Lucknow in the presence of at least three AICC secretaries.

"We don't write love letters to central election authorities, don't want to get into the specifics as it's an internal matter and that would be inappropriate but we have been in constant touch with the party's Central Election Authority (CEA) to flag our concerns," he said on Wednesday. As per sources, Tharoor has complained about absence of a level playing field for the both candidates. The CEA had barred office-bearers from campaigning for any candidate.

Pitted against Tharoor(66) is 80-year-old Malikarjuna Kharge, the handpicked candidate of those close to the Gandhi family. It was Tharoor who first announced his candidature saying that he will back out if Rahul Gandhi contests. When that did not happen, those who feared that Tharoor's victory may dent the future of many who have been at the helm of affairs, got into the act.

"Kharge sir is my leader too. We are not enemies. I am fighting to bring change in the Congress party," he said here while interacting with the mediapersons. Advocating for a change in the Congress party, he said: "I will bring elections to Congress working committee and there will be a change in the parliamentary board in the party too."

The MP from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, who arrived here to seek support from the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates, also expressed his disappointment over some Congress leaders openly expressing their support for Kharge. Kharge had also visited Bhopal two days ago and had appealed to the Congress delegates in Madhya Pradesh to support him.

"Both the nominees contesting for Congress Presidential elections have a position as well as their own perspectives. To call anyone a 'remote control' is insulting to both of them," said Rahul. Rahul attacked BJP and blamed it for spreading hatred and violence in the country, which he said is an anti-national act and he will fight anybody who spreads hatred and violence.