Will caste factor keep Shashi Tharoor out of the CWC?

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 28 With the now-ended 85th plenary session of the Congress in Raipur authorising party President Malikarjuna Kharge to nominate 35 members to the Congress Working Committee, the chances of former Union Minister making it to the party's highest decision-making body seem to have dimmed.

In the outgoing CWC, there were three members from Kerala - K.C. Venugopal, A.K.Antony, and Oommen Chandy. Out of them, the last two might not return due to their age and bad health, while Venugopal has increased his stock in the party by being the closest aide of Rahul Gandhi.

Among those in the running include Tharoor, Ramesh Chennithala, Mullapally Ramachandran, Kodikunnil Suresh, among others.

Questions over Tharoor came when Congress General Secretary in charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar on Tuesday opined that while there is no doubt that Tharoor has all qualities to be a member of the CWC, caste issues are also there when it comes to its constitution.

While Venugopal, Chennithala and Tharoor all hail from the powerful Hindu Nair community, seven time Lok Sabha member Suresh hails from the Scheduled Caste community and he has already thrown in his hat in the ring.

However, a political observer opined that it is evident that Tharoor does not have the support of all in the state unit, ever since he decided to contest for the Congress Presidentship against Kharge and those close to the Gandhi family were upset with him.

"If what Anwar said is true, how come there were two Christ from Kerala in the outgoing CWC. So such excuses like that one has to look out for caste composition is just to keep someone out and with this statement, if Tharoor still find a place in the CWC, it should be a big surprise," the observer said.

Tharoor has already made it clear that he would not be keen to get into the CWC as a special invitee, and it remains to be seen if he becomes a CWC member or not.