Shashi Tharoor sweating it out in Kerala

Former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's capital city, is fast learning that politics in Kerala is much different from A/C room diplomacy.

Shashi Tharoor, has an international repute and a spectacular resume that matches the best bureaucrat in the world, but he lacks fluency in Malayalam, incidentally, is his mother tongue.

 He feels uneasy during the speeches he has to make in the roasting heat of the hottest summer in recent years, but what he must worry the most about is the possibility of leg-pulling, a phenomenon innate to the Congress in Kerala.

Any one who sees Shashi Tharoor will say that Congress could not have found a better candidate for Thiruvananthapuram than Tharoor, sophisticated from tip to toe, refined in behaviour, well-shaved and — above all — reflecting aristocracy and gentlemanliness, qualities the inhabitants of the State capital, known for their loyalty to the Travancore Royalty and bureaucratic nature, value the most.

Tharoor’s campaign has not gathered steam in Thiruvantahapuram, and the Congress party machinery seems to be failing him. In fact, Sashi Tharoor was the candidate nominated by party's powerful High Command.

The biggest concern for Shashi should be the antagonism from within the Congress. Even the Congress insiders do not rule out the possibility of large-scale leg-pulling against Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram.

Thiruvanthapuram has a legacy of sending high profile veterans like late V K Krishna Menon (as CPI-M backed independent in 1971), CPI stalwart M N Govindan Nair (1977) and Congress veteran K Karunakaran (1998). Then again, resumes don’t explain the political aftermath because Thiruvanthapuram defeated great Malayalam poet ONV Kurup when he contested against the local congress leader A Charles.

Though the main contest in the seat is between Tharoor and LDF's P Ramachandran Nair (CPI), the battle has become a multi-cornered fight with BJP state chief P K Krishnadas and BSP's A Neelalohithadasan Nadar entering the fray.

CPI candidate Pannyan Raveendran had bagged Thiruvanthapuram seat in a by-election in 2005 by a margin of 74,182 votes.