Tharoor says impromptu convening of Lok Sabha perplexing

Shashi Tharoor, MP, CWC member, says Centre's decision to hold Lok Sabha for 5 days is perplexing. BJP's One Nation One Election scheme won't yield any tangible political benefit. Pollster's survey of 25,000 mobile users to predict 2024 polls is questionable. Tharoor denies operating politically outside Kerala PCC. AICC has not sidelined Chennithala, who has not returned Tharoor's call. Tharoor urges to look forward, not burden with past.

Newly elevated Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor, MP, on Friday said the Centre’s opaque and seemingly impromptu decision to convene the Lok Sabha for five days from September 18 to 22 was perplexing and cloaked in conspiratorial silence.

“There is no clarity on the agenda. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)‘s visceral fear that voters will reject the party in the 2024 polls might have prompted the move,” Mr. Tharoor said at a press conference.

He said the BJP’s One Nation One election scheme was myopic. It would yield no tangible political dividend for the BJP.

“The BJP will not bag a single seat in Kerala or Tamil Nadu even if it implemented the scheme. The proposal might yield some unquantifiable short-term political advantage for the BJP. Nevertheless, it is a patently improvident political move,” Mr. Tharoor said.

Mr. Tharoor mocked pollsters obsessed with handing over a Lok Sabha election win to the BJP in 2024. He said a prominent pro-BJP media organisation had relied on questionable polling methods to award the BJP the Parliament in 2024.

“The pollster’s survey was limited to 25,000 relatively well-heeled mobile phone users. The agency has no clarity on whether its poll reflected the opinion of common folk. There is also no information on whether the poll covered a cross-section of voters and factored in age, caste, religion, provincial, and age demographics,” he said. He said the poll’s conclusion was laughable.

Mr. Tharoor denied he operated politically outside the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s ambit to carve out a personal constituency for himself in Kerala and outside.