Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said in his political career of 15 years, he never needed to attack his critics and opponents. On the prospect of a strong fight in his constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, as BJP has fielded Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from the seat, the three-term MP from Thiruvananthapuram said the CPM candidate should not be taken lightly and so it will be a three-cornered contest from Thiruvananthapuram. The Congress has not yet announced the candidate list for the coming election but Shashi Tharoor’s name is expected because of his record winning streak.

“Don’t forget that I took the seat from the Communist Party and the gentleman who is the candidate now, was the sitting MP when I came into the fray. He did not contest again at that time and it has now been 15 years that he is out of the fray. So it remains to be seen how Mr Pannyan Raveendran (CPM candidate in 2024) does…BJP has come second in the last two Lok Sabha elections. So, they have to be taken seriously,” Tharoor said.

On Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Shashi Tharoor said he is a very well-known business figure and a minister for a couple of years. “I know him and he knows me. I am hoping it will be a fair and gentlemanly electoral contest. I don’t think that I have needed, in my 15 years in politics, to ever attack any of my critics. I welcome them all, I welcome the opponents. Let the public decide who they want to represent them in Delhi,” Tharoor said.

Though the Congress and the CPM are INDIA partners, the CPM announced candidates and fielded Pannyan Raveendran who was the MP before 2009.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar has already started criticising the Congress and the CPM and said both of them held hostage the dreams of the youth. “Both the INDI partners — Cong and CPM are same in terms of creating opportunities for youth — Zero. Kerala and Thiruvanthapuram’s development and dreams of its youth and women hv been held hostage by TWO defunct and inept ideologies of Cong & Left and we need to change that,” the BJP’s Thiruvananthapuram candidate wrote on X commenting on a report that only 5,839 jobs were created in Kerala in the last eight years.