Shashi tharoor congress president

Shashi Tharoor ( IPA: SHUH-shee thǝ- ROOR; born 9 March 1956 in London, England) is an Indian former international Born in In 2009, Tharoor began his political career by joining the A Early life and education [ ] Shashi Tharoor was born on 10 March 1956 Tharoor's father, originally from Kerala, worked in various positions in London, In 1975, Tharoor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Diplomatic career [ ] Beginning [ ] Tharoor's career in the United Nations began in 1978 as a staff member of the Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary-General at the UN [ ] In 1996, Tharoor was appointed Director of Communications and Special Projects and Executive Assistant to Secretary-General On 9 February 2007, Tharoor resigned from the post of Under-Secretary-General and left the UN on 1 April 2007. Campaign for UN Secretary-General: 2006 [ ] See also: In 2006, the government of India nominated Tharoor for the post of Tharoor finished second, behind Post-UN career [ ] External video In February 2007, amidst speculation about his post-UN future, the Indian press reported that Tharoor might be inducted into Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Prior to embarking on his political career, Tharoor also served on the board of overseers of the Political career in India [ ] Tharoor was a pioneer in using social media as an instrument of political interaction. He was India's most-followed politician on Twitter until 2013, when he was overtaken by Prime Minister He was al...

Shashi Tharoor, a three-time Member of Parliament and a familiar face across Indian middle-class homes, was an unlikely candidate for the post of Congress president. He contested against the unofficial “official” candidate, Mallikarjun Kharge, and lost (with 1,072 votes to Kharge’s 7,897), though he did far better than challengers in the past, including Jitendra Prasada, Sharad Pawar, and Rajesh Pilot. In his first post-election interview, Tharoor tells Frontline what he thinks are the important issues in the party and the way forward. There has been a lot of analysis in the media and elsewhere about the 1,072 votes you polled (which is over 10 per cent of the total votes polled). There is a view that this is because of dissent within the Congress. Is that how you see this? I don’t see myself as a candidate of dissent. I pitched myself as a candidate of change, and there are a lot of people who, while they are loyal to the party, were convinced that the need had come for us to abandon the idea of business as usual. …Because even the so-called G-23 letter pointed to a number of very good proposals, most of which even [Congress president] Sonia Gandhi had no objection to. I think that one could argue that these ideas, which were reflected in my manifesto, were ideas that have largely come from experienced party workers. In fact, the whole thing [the idea to contest] started when I wrote an article that came out in English, Hindi, and Malayalam, at the time that the dates of ...

The author, wordsmith, former UN diplomat and social media pioneer with 8.3 million followers on Twitter demonstrated during the last few weeks that he is quite the opposite of a 'quockerwodger', a politically loaded term for a wooden puppet he introduced into our lexicon, and is instead independent minded, making moves on his own terms. Tharoor's loss is reminiscent of his electoral run in the 2006 UN secretary general poll in which he was defeated by South Korea's Ban Ki-moon but not before creating a strong buzz. It was in that contest perhaps that he first displayed his stomach for an electoral fight against daunting odds. That the often outspoken Tharoor managed 1,072 votes against perceived Gandhi favourite Kharge's 7,897 in the presidential election, only the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history, is believed to be quite an achievement. ALSO READ | The 66-year-old raised issues of an uneven playing field during his campaign and his team filed complaints with the party's central election authority. But he deftly walked the tightrope and continued to maintain that the Gandhis had pledged neutrality and stressed that the election is a significant step that will hold the party in good stead. Amid questions over his future, many political observers believe he has enhanced his political stature and it will not be easy for his critics and rivals in the party to pull him down. During the campaign, Tharoor batted for the empowerment of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) pr...

One thing that is certain about the Congress’ internal elections for now is that Shashi Tharoor has decided to be in the fray. Tharoor, the Thiruvananthapuram MP, has made his decision clear even as uncertainty looms over who would be his rival. Tharoor, who has been calling for internal elections ever since the 2019 general election drubbing and Rahul Gandhi’s subsequent resignation as party chief, will file his nomination on Friday (September 30). Tharoor has already got his sets of nomination papers from the party’s election authorities. A candidate needs the support of 10 delegates with voting rights to file nomination. Tharoor, the diplomat-turned-politician, is eyeing to get delegates from different parts of the country to sign his papers. The aim is clear – present himself as candidate with support from across the country. But his plans do not stop there. He is also looking to file one set of nomination with the support of 10 delegates exclusively from Kerala, his home state. That sounds ambitious since top leaders of the party, who never like to challenge the Nehru-Gandhi family, have already made statements expressing displeasure over Tharoor’s move which is looked upon as a rebellious act. Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered Kerala on Sunday. MP Shashi Tharoor, Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan, K Muraleedharan, and KC Venugopal, among others, can also be seen. Photo: Rinkuraj Mattancheril/Manorama Support from Kerala MPs It is learnt that at...

New Delhi: The new Congress Working Committee (CWC) may be announced by this month's end with party president Mallikarjun Kharge almost completing the 'difficult task' of finalising names, a source close to the development said. The announcement will be made after seeking the opinions of senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi upon their return from abroad, party sources said. Veteran party leaders from Kerala, A K Antony and Oommen Chandy, suffering from poor health conditions, may be excluded from the list. Both had requested the High Command not to consider them again. However, a decision on including them as special invitees will be taken in the coming days. Oommen Chandy will stand down from the responsibility of the general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh as 'he is finding it difficult to travel'. K C Venugopal, who has emerged as one of the prominent faces of the Congress national leadership is sure to find a place on the list. However, Kharge is reportdedly in a dilemma over including Ramesh Chennithala and Shashi Tharoor in the new working committee. Though both are prominent leaders, they belong to the same community, and it’s not practical to include both leaders from Kerala apart from Venugopal, the source said. If equal representation of communities comes into play, then Kodikunnil Suresh may be roped in. The last CWC was disbursed soon after Kharge had ascended to the post of Congress chief, and a steering committee formed thereafter had assumed th...

NEW DELHI: By filing his nomination as Congress president on Friday, Shashi Tharoor has shown he is no 'quockerwodger' - a word he introduced into our lexicon - acting on the instructions of an influential third party. In fact, the bestseller author, wordsmith, former UN diplomat and social media 'pioneer' with 8.3 million followers has demonstrated he is quite the opposite of a 'quockerwodger', a politically loaded term for a wooden puppet, and is instead independent-minded, making moves on his own terms. As speculation over who would be in the race for the Congress president mounted and most of his party colleagues demurred, Tharoor was the first off the block to declare he would contest. The 66-year-old filed his nomination at the office of the Congress' central election authority Madhusudan Mistry on Friday, the last day of the nomination process for the top post in the party long dominated by the Gandhi family. Tharoor, seen as a rebel and one of the group of 23 leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking large-scale reforms, now takes on veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, widely seen to be backed by senior leaders and tipped to win. The longer the Congress waits to get its act together, the greater the risk of a steady erosion of our traditional vote bank and their gravitation towards our political competitors. "Which is why I have long been an outspoken advocate for free and transparent elections within the party, including for the post of president," the forthright ...

An initial version of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s manifesto for the upcoming elections for party president showed a distorted map of India, with parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh omitted from it. His office later corrected the omission, and a fresh version now includes the official map of India. Tharoor apologised “unconditionally” for the error and said, “No one does such things on purpose.” Re the troll storm on a manifesto map: No one does such things on purpose. A small team of volunteers made a mistake. We rectified it immediately &I apologise unconditionally for the error. Here’s the manifesto: English: Hindi: — Tharoor’s manifesto includes ‘ten tenets’ to ‘revitalise’ Congress. These include decentralisation, ‘reimagining’ the role of AICC, broadening participation, ‘reinvigorating’ election management, and increased focus on youth. On page four of the manifesto, under decentralisation, a distorted version of India’s map was printed.

NEW DELHI: Congress's Lok Sabha MP Nehru-Gandhi scion However, if Rahul opts out of the race, then a Gehlot-Tharoor contest is likely to take place. If an election does take place, it would only be for the fifth time in the history of the 137-year-old party. In 1938, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose won with a thumping margin defeating Pattabhi Sittaramayya even though the latter was considered as Mahatma Gandhi’s nominee. Purushottam Das Tandon defeated JB Kripalani in 1950, Sitaram Kesri defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in 1997, and Sonia defeated Jitendra Prasada in 2000. Gehlot’s candidature came into the limelight after he met Sonia on August 23, a day before she, along with Rahul and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, went abroad for medical checkup and to meet her ailing mother who later passed away in Italy. Rahul came back on September 3-4 to take part in the party’s ‘Mehangai par halla bol rally’ in Delhi. On September 7, he went to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to launch the party’s 3,570-km and 150-day padyatra to Kashmir, covering 12 states and 2 Union Territories. So far in his yatra, he has not given an unequivocal statement about his candidature for the party’s presidential election. The election process will kick off on September 24 when candidates can start filing their nominations till the end of the month. Though a clear picture will emerge on September 30, it seems to be a Gehlot-Tharoor affair for now. And if an election takes place between the two vete...

New Delhi: The Congress may have a non-Gandhi president for the first time in over 20 years. Ashok Gehlot, a Gandhi family loyalist, will likely run for party president opposite Shashi Tharoor, who is among those in the party who want major internal reforms. Here's your 10-point cheatsheet in this big story: • Shashi Tharoor, a former Union Minister, was the first to declare his intention to run for a post that has been with the Gandhis -- either Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul -- for much of 25 years. He is a prominent member of the Congress's G-23 or group of 23 leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 calling for an organizational overhaul and blaming the party's downward spiral on a leadership drift. • Mr Tharoor met with Sonia Gandhi, who is just back from a trip abroad for a medical check-up, on Monday afternoon and got her go-ahead to contest the October 17 election. • Within hours, the fight for the Congress top post became considerably tougher with Ashok Gehlot emerging as the other candidate. The Rajasthan Chief Minister, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist, had been pressing for Rahul Gandhi's return as party chief until recently. He is likely to win support among those batting for status quo and a return of Rahul Gandhi at the top post. • "Anybody who wants to contest is free and welcome to do so. This has been the consistent position of the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi. This is an open, democratic and transparent process. Nobody needs anybody's nod to con...

New Delhi: The Congress may have a non-Gandhi president for the first time in over 20 years. Ashok Gehlot, a Gandhi family loyalist, will likely run for party president opposite Shashi Tharoor, who is among those in the party who want major internal reforms. Here's your 10-point cheatsheet in this big story: • Shashi Tharoor, a former Union Minister, was the first to declare his intention to run for a post that has been with the Gandhis -- either Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul -- for much of 25 years. He is a prominent member of the Congress's G-23 or group of 23 leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 calling for an organizational overhaul and blaming the party's downward spiral on a leadership drift. • Mr Tharoor met with Sonia Gandhi, who is just back from a trip abroad for a medical check-up, on Monday afternoon and got her go-ahead to contest the October 17 election. • Within hours, the fight for the Congress top post became considerably tougher with Ashok Gehlot emerging as the other candidate. The Rajasthan Chief Minister, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist, had been pressing for Rahul Gandhi's return as party chief until recently. He is likely to win support among those batting for status quo and a return of Rahul Gandhi at the top post. • "Anybody who wants to contest is free and welcome to do so. This has been the consistent position of the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi. This is an open, democratic and transparent process. Nobody needs anybody's nod to con...