For as soon as, Shashi Tharoor is perplexed. Requested what he calls the burgundy crimson election vahanam (car) he’s perched precariously atop throughout a drive-through marketing campaign rally within the coronary heart of Thiruvananthapuram, he pauses after which laughs. “It’s a pick-up truck that offers me a chair and sufficient area for a few colleagues in order that we are able to wave to the general public as we drive by.” It’s scorching and humid in Kerala’s capital metropolis and all that protects Tharoor from the solar and rain is a makeshift tarpaulin over his head and a compact air-conditioner subsequent to his perch. Having gained three consecutive Lok Sabha elections for the Thiruvananthapuram constituency on a Congress ticket, Tharoor, 68, is a veteran at campaigning. He waves furiously to pedestrians, passing and stationary automobiles and curious shopkeepers, his face lighting up with an enthralling smile because the breeze tousles his silvery-grey mane. His pilot van has a band of percussionists belting out drum rolls to herald his arrival, whereas one other van blasts songs in his reward on repeat. Not like in 2019, when Tharoor breezed by way of his re-election to the seat with a excessive margin of votes, this time spherical, he’s feeling the warmth of the battle and is being made to toil tougher.
