Fighting for India free of ‘bitterness, hatred, communalism’: Shashi Tharoor

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor standing in a queue waits to cast his vote for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections, in Thiruvananthapuram, Friday, April 26, 2024.

Shashi Tharoor, defending his Thiruvananthapuram turf against Union minister and BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said on Friday, that he was fighting for an India free of “bitterness, hatred, and communalism.”

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“A country free of communalism, a country free of the kind of bitterness, hatred, and unpleasant invective (abusive language)…that has dominated our political discourse over the last few years, that is what I am fighting against,” the Congress MP said after casting his vote.

Tharoor, who made his electoral debut from this Kerala constituency in 2009 and retained the seat in both 2014 and 2019 national polls, described the ongoing elections as “far greater than my own future.”

“As a Congress candidate, at every junction and every stop, I have repeatedly made the point that as far as I am concerned, this is an election far greater than my own future. It is about India’s future. It is about changing the government in Delhi. That is what we are here to do,” the former Union minister remarked.

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He also said that the grand old party-led opposition bloc will “restore” India to being the country most of us grew up in.”

“We are here to restore democracy, restore a faith in diversity, and restore India’s pluralism, and restore for the first time, the country that most of us grew up in, and took for granted until these 10 years have veered it in a very different direction,” he added.

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Kerala has 20 Lok Sabha seats; in today’s nationwide polling – the second of the seven-phase elections – all constituencies in the southern state are voting. Other major Congress candidates in the fray include former party chief Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad) and KC Venugopal (Alappuzha).

The Lok Sabha elections commenced on April 19, while the seventh and final round of voting is scheduled for June 1. The counting of votes for all 543 seats will be held on June 4.

(With ANI inputs)

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