Can Shashi Tharoor Break Free Of His Political Purgatory?

Shashi Tharoor’s saga in Kerala state politics is oft-repeated at this point. Though if you were to stretch your horizons, one can argue that Tharoor has been doing the same things at the national level too. The cycle goes as follows:

1. Tharoor makes nuanced statement on issue X, which either goes against the Congress’s stated position on the issue or is a disagreement with it. 

2. Media plays up Tharoor’s statement, Tharoor also reinforces his line by posting on X (formerly Twitter).  

3. Tharoor makes blanket statement that, based on interpretation, can be seen as him disagreeing with central leadership and/or hinting at possibly leaving Congress.

4. Media plays up the statement, speculation from national media about Tharoor joining BJP. 

5. Tharoor stays silent on such news reports for around a week, then reacts and denies ever making such statements and reaffirms that he is a committed Congressman. 

This might be like a broad summary of what happened a few weeks ago, but this is not the first time Tharoor has let speculation fester about his ‘future’.

Similar events happened when Tharoor praised Swacch Bharat in 2014 or when PM received his book on British colonialism, or when the PM praised Tharoor a few days after Sonia Gandhi reprimanded him. At the end all of speculation comes to nought as Tharoor continues in the Congress, delivering Shakespearean dialogues, possibly writing another book and enjoying the glitz and glamour of Delhi’s social circles. 

Tharoor’s Political Moves Almost Always Fail To Deliver

Tharoor might be a four-term MP from Thiruvananthapuram at this point, but his political moves to be more than an articulate and notable MP have not worked out.

When Tharoor entered politics before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he had just lost an election to become UN Secretary General. He was already a well-regarded author and writer aligned ostensibly with the Congress. Other than trudging along two Ministries as a Minister of State, Tharoor has never really been ‘in power’.

For a bureaucrat who has served lifelong (till his early 50s) in the world’s premier inter-governmental organisation interacting with international glitterati, being in the day-to-day heat of Indian politics hasn’t really paid off. 

Tharoor, after the 2021 whitewash of Congress in the Kerala Assembly election, made the prudent decision to enter state politics. In 2022, helped by fellow Congress MP from Kozhikode M.K. Raghavan, Tharoor undertook a high profile visit to Panakkad, the house of the Thangal family that heads the Muslim League. The aim was to do a soft-launch to become the UDF chief ministerial candidate.

The state congress leadership did not take this too kindly, especially since many Congress MPs seemed to re-enter Kerala state politics at the same time. This was followed by him being invited to address the Mannam Birthday event at the Nair Service Society Headquarters in January, 2023. Sukumaran Nair, who had once derisively described him as a “Delhi Nair” praised Tharoor, calling him a “son of Kerala” and a “global citizen”. 

And what did all of this come to? Nothing. 

Tharoor folded in front of the opposition of KPCC President K. Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition VD Satheeshan. Just to recall, this entire saga was just weeks after he lost an election to be Congress President. That saga too was quite amusing—he garnered only around 11 per cent of the vote, but that is not surprising considering that it was clear that Mallikarjun Kharge was the choice of the Gandhi family. Was Tharoor trying out something new and attempting to break out of the box that he had been put in within national politics?

After his run against Kharge, there existed some amount of tension even on his entry to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as well, though he was eventually included. Remember that Tharoor was also part of the G-23 that asked for elections to the CWC.

Tharoor is Frustrated And It Shows

Tharoor has been pushing up against the limits of his political career. He is entering his 70s and other than being a four-term MP from Thiruvananthapuram, does Tharoor have any achievement to speak of?

Yes, it is impressive that Tharoor has been able to hold on to the constituency where the BJP has been making inroads, especially in 2014 when he edged out veteran O Rajagopal and in 2024 when he defeated a resurgent Rajeev Chandrasekhar. But he has not been able to grow a space for himself within the Congress national party or even within the state unit.

Just look at the treatment of his 2024 Thiruvananthapuram opponent, Rajeev Chandrashekhar by the BJP. He is now the Kerala BJP state President leading the unit into the 2025 Local Body and the 2026 Assembly elections. Rajeev Chandrasekhar too comes from a non-political background, having been a successful entrepreneur who entered politics through Rajya Sabha in and around the same time.

There might be some who scoff at the comparison, but Tharoor is clearly a potent force to use within Kerala’s politics. As a well-spoken ‘global citizen’ with international credentials, his image has clear potential to resonate with Kerala’s middle class voters. Yet he remains curiously untapped as the myriad groups within the Congress have always been suspicious or even insecure of his ways. This was evident when the latest saga about Tharoor began. 

What set off the chain of events was Tharoor writing an op-ed that praised the Kerala government’s efforts to create a startup ecosystem. This praise for a government facing severe anti-incumbency might look politically naive, but it is clear that Tharoor was making a point to Congress state leadership, who had repeatedly targeted him in the past.

At the end, other than him getting a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and being part of some decision-making meetings, did it really achieve Tharoor anything? He is still just an MP—a four-time MP (which an entire cohort of Congress MPs from Kerala can claim to be at this point). And an MP can do very little. The frustration might be building in Tharoor, and it showed in his recalcitrant approach on the controversy over him possibly jumping ship to the Left or BJP. 

What Next For Tharoor? 

As the 2025 Local Body elections in Kerala nears, Tharoor may make an appearance as the state’s primary topic of discussion again. It is very likely that based on Congress’s performance (or non-performance) in the local body polls, which is widely perceived to be the bellwether to the Assembly polls, Tharoor will make a re-entry to state politics. 

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) at this point is entering a free-for-all that has been emblematic of post-2016 Congress. Each and every leader with some amount of critical mass would be projecting themselves as the next chief minister.

K. Sudhakaran, State Congress President, V.D. Satheesan, current Leader of Opposition, the former LoP, Ramesh Chennithala, and the dark horse, K.C. Venugopal, are all contenders.

Satheesan does overtly lead this pack, but if KCV decides to step in, this author doubts any other aspirant will be able to get their names in front of Rahul Gandhi, who will ultimately take the call.

Tharoor is clearly disfavoured by the Gandhis, so the possibility of him actually being the CM candidate would be a coup, if it ever happens.

It is however way more likely that Tharoor creates another flutter in the run up to the 2026 Assembly election and again fades away to relative obscurity in Delhi. His crowning achievement might end up being his victory over O Rajagopal in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the end.