Voting for the post of Congress President is being held on Monday after 24 years. Senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge is considered the front-runner in this election. He is pitted against Shashi Tharoor, who joined the Congress in 2008. If we look at the number of proposers of nomination and the leaders who have participated in the election campaign, then Tharoor looks weak in it, but he claims that this time the game will turn. Tharoor speaks of change this time.
Shashi Tharoor is asking Congress delegates to cast their votes on the voice of conscience and remember their old record of winning elections. After all, before knowing in detail through which records Tharoor is confident of a reversal in the Congress Presidential election, let us look at Tharoor's political career in Congress. Shashi Tharoor had joined Congress just 14 years back. Since then, he has been an MP three times. At the same time, twice the Union Minister of State has been made.
If you look at this, the graph of Shashi Tharoor's political career in Congress has not been seen going down. Now let us know how much Tharoor has been involved in electoral politics...
Fought a total of five elections in the country and abroad, only one lost
In his political career from college till now, Shashi Tharoor has contested five elections. These include the election of the Students' Union to the UN Secretary-General. The details of these five and the account of Shashi Tharoor's defeat are as follows...
1. 1973 - Stephen's College Student Union Election: Tharoor did his graduation from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. In 1973, he won the college student union election. Tharoor was only 17 years old at that time. Tharoor's first decision after winning the election was to amend the Constitution of St. Stephen. Under this, the name of the Students Society was changed to Students Union.
2. 2006 - Election of UN Secretary-General: In 2006, after Kofi Annan retired, elections were held for the post of UN Secretary-General. After getting the green signal from the Indian government, Tharoor contested against Ban Ki-moon. According to the constitution of the UN, 15 members of the Security Council vote on it.
Tharoor was defeated in this election due to the US veto and Ban Ki-moon became the Secretary General of the UN. Two years later, Tharoor returned to India and joined the Congress. After returning to India, Tharoor won three consecutive Lok Sabha elections.
3. Lok Sabha Elections 2009: After joining Congress, Tharoor contested for the first time from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in 2009. He was up against CPI's advocate P Ramachandran Nair. In this election, Shashi Tharoor got 3 lakh 26 thousand votes, while Nair got 2 lakh 26 thousand votes. Thus Tharoor won by nearly one lakh votes, after which he was made a minister in the Manmohan Singh government.
4. Lok Sabha Elections 2014: Despite the anti-incumbency wave, Tharoor was successful in winning the election from Thiruvananthapuram. He defeated O Rajagopal of the BJP by more than 15 thousand votes. Tharoor got around 3 lakh votes in this election.
5. Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Tharoor won from Thiruvananthapuram seat for the third time in a row. He was up against Kumanam Rajasekharan of BJP. Tharoor got more votes in this election than before. He got a total of 4 Lakh 16 Thousand 131 votes, while Rajasekharan got 3 Lakh 16 Thousand 142 votes. This time he had won by nearly one lakh votes.
Ph.D. degree in 22 years, then a job at the UN
Born in London, Shashi Tharoor did his early studies at the Campaign School in Mumbai. He graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. After this, he earned an MA and then a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, USA. Tharoor completed his Ph.D. degree at the age of just 22. He is the youngest Ph.D. student in the history of the Fletcher School.
After his Ph.D., he joined UNHRC as a staff member. After this, he continued to work in various positions at the UN for about 30 years. He has written more than a dozen books till now.
Tharoor has been a super striker in his life
Shashi Tharoor was not afraid to take bold steps all his life. The special thing is that from the party to the issues of the country and the world, he continued to express his unambiguous opinion. Here read three such incidents when Tharoor gave birth to a new debate with his statements...
In 2012, the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi called Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar a girlfriend of 50 crores. Tharoor retorted saying- If Modi had ever loved, he would have known its value. Tharoor had said – No virtual currency (Rs 50 crore) can be the price of love.
In an interview given to a British channel in 2017, Tharoor said – When it comes to British imperialism, Britain becomes forgetful. He forgets how the British Empire came to be. Colonial history is not taught in British schools. The children here have no idea what kind of atrocities Britain has committed in other parts of the world.
In 2020, the meeting of the rebel faction of Congress was held at Shashi Tharoor's house for the first time. It was from here that a letter was written to Sonia Gandhi. Sonia was ill at that time and was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi. There was a lot of uproar within the party over this.
Also, know about the controversies related to Shashi Tharoor on the go...
Many controversies were associated with Tharoor, who turned politician from a diplomat. However, Tharoor defended himself equally strongly from all these controversies. Some of the major controversies related to Tharoor are as follows...
He went to the post of the minister on the allegation of benefiting the cricket team: The first dispute with Tharoor was related to him while he was a minister. In 2010, 2 new teams were formed in IPL, one was Kochi. There was an allegation of unfair advantage to this team and Tharoor's name was associated with it. The controversy first cropped up with the name of Sunanda Pushkar, Tharoor's girlfriend and shareholder in the Kochi team. Tharoor had to resign after the controversy. After leaving the ministerial post, Tharoor married Sunanda.
Called middle-class cattle class, then apologized: Tharoor made a controversial statement while ministering. He said- Middle class is the cattle class. His statement caused an uproar within Congress. However, Tharoor apologized after the high command's displeasure.
On staying in the hotel, it was said - there is no privacy in the government bungalow: Tharoor used to stay in a 5-star hotel in Delhi instead of the government bungalow during his stay as a minister. When questioned by the journalists, he said – there is no privacy, so I stay in the hotel.
Sunanda's suicide case: In January 2014, Sunanda Pushkar allegedly committed suicide in a Delhi hotel. Shashi Tharoor's name was also added in this case. Delhi Police also questioned him several times. However, in 2021, he was acquitted by the court.
Also Read: Why Congress is absent from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, has already accepted defeat
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