Shashi Tharoor Shares Pic Of Him With M Kharge, Sonia Gandhi. See Post

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today met Mallikarjun Kharge and pledged his support in taking the party forward, a week after the 80-year-old veteran defeated the Thiruvananthapuram MP by a wide margin in the election for the top post.

Mr Tharoor turned up for the ceremony at the party headquarters, in which outgoing party chief Sonia Gandhi formally passed the baton to Mr Kharge after a 23-year term.

"Gathered for a brief chat after Kharge ji sat in his new office for a symbolic moment. Pledged him my full support & cooperation in taking Congress forward," he tweeted later, with a picture of him with Mrs Gandhi and Mr Kharge.

The Congress's official handle too shared a picture of the three leaders together, with the caption, "Loktantra Zindabad (long live democracy)". This was retweeted by Mr Tharoor.

The caption stressed the party's position that it has a transparent election process and internal democracy, a point stressed by Mr Kharge in his first speech after taking over today. 

The picture was shared as a frame of unity, considering Mr Kharge was seen as an "official" candidate backed by Gandhis. Mr Tharoor, in the run-up to the polls, had said the veteran leader from Karnataka was a "status-quo" candidate and campaigned with the slogan #Think Tomorrow, Think Tharoor.

Mr Kharge had responded that the change Mr Tharoor was speakijg about "will be decided by the delegates and the All India Congress Committee". "One person will not be taking the calls, it'll be taken collectively," he had said.

Both leaders had, however, stressed that it is not a bitter contest, with Mr Kharge stressing that it is "like two brothers" putting forward their views.

The aftermath of the polls, which saw Mr Kharge win by a landslide, saw some sharp exchanges between the party leadership and Mr Tharoor.

As the votes were counted, Mr Tharoor's election agent Salman Soz wrote to Madhusudan Mistry, the election in-charge, flagging "disturbing facts" in the election process in Uttar Pradesh and demanding that votes in the state be cancelled.

Mr Soz later said after assurances of a "fair inquiry", the team had agreed that the vote-count must go on.

Though Mr Tharoor regretted that a "strictly internal letter" was leaked and said, "let's move on", the Congress was blunt in its response.

"We accommodated your request... and despite that you went to the media alleging that the Central Election Authority was conspiring against you," Mr Mistry wrote in his rebuttal.

"You tried creating a mountain out of a mole(hill) by creating an impression that the entire exercise was unfair to your candidate," he said.

Against this backdrop, today's visit appears to be an attempt by the party to put up a united front as it desperately tries to put up a formidable challenge to the BJP ahead of the 2024 general election.