Shashi Tharoor, a well-known Congress Party parliamentarian vying for the party's top post, has proposed reforming India's main opposition party to make it battle-ready to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state and national polls in 2024.
Releasing his manifesto ahead of the upcoming leadership race, Tharoor emphasized that the party needed to be revived from the grassroots or else it would struggle to defeat the BJP.
One of the most important reforms that Tharoor mentioned was to limit the term of office for the party's state chiefs.
At present, a state chief can serve multiple terms in office but Tharoor wants to limit this to just one term.
"My message is to revive the party, re-energise it, empower workers, decentralise authority and be in touch with the people. This, I believe, will make Congress politically fit to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP in the 2024 general election," Tharoor told reporters at the Congress headquarters in Kerala state on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Tharoor also reiterated that his contest with Kharge, one of the senior Congress politicians, is a friendly one, emphasizing that both believed in the party's ideology and wished to revive its fortunes.
"We need to reform the way our party functions. We need to bring young people to the party and give them real authority. At the same time, we should give greater respect to hardworking and long-serving karyakartas (functionaries)," Tharoor added.
Tharoor’s task will not be plain sailing, however, given that his opponent reportedly enjoys the backing of the powerful and influential Gandhi family, the current party boss Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi.
Likewise, only 12 of the 700 Congress delegates that are eligible to vote in the election from Tharoor’s home state of Kerala reportedly turned up for Thursday’s manifesto launch.