Senior opposition parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor on Friday dismissed speculations of him being in the race to become next Congress Working Committee (CWC) head, saying that he was not even thinking about contesting for it.
The CWC is the top executive body of India's main opposition party, Congress, and its chief holds considerable influence, considering it oversees the policies and activities of the outfit. It also reviews the preparations for the state legislative assembly, and national polls besides having the authority to sack and appoint the party chief.
"I'm not interested in any position for myself. It was to make a certain point and stand up for certain principles that I contested for the (Congress) president's post. I feel I made my point, now it is for others to step forward," Tharoor, the Thiruvananthapuram parliamentarian from India's Kerala state, told local media.
Last October, Tharoor contested the Congress' presidential polls but eventually lost out to Mallikarjun Kharge, who was seen as being favored by the powerful Gandhis, including former bosses Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.
Subsequently, Tharoor's equations with the Congress became the talk of the town with a section of party members in his home state of Kerala accusing him of running a parallel show in the state.
Some of them even accused him of pitching himself as Congress' State Chief candidate for the next state assembly polls in 2026, which Tharoor denied later.