Who will be Kerala’s next Chief Minister? Shashi Tharoor breaks silence on leadership question as UDF crosses majority mark

As early counting trends in Kerala showed the UDF crossing the halfway mark, Shashi Tharoor welcomed the development, describing it as an indication that voters are looking for change after a decade.

Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said the party reflects a shift in political direction and underlined the importance of ushering in a “new kind of politics” following what he termed 10 years of poor governance.

On the issue of leadership in the state, Tharoor said the party would take its time before making any decision. He added that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would appoint a representative to consult newly elected MLAs, after which the party’s high command would take a final call in accordance with its established process.


"Look, we are a party of change. We want that after 10 years of such bad politics, it is very important to bring change and, in my view, to bring in a new kind of politics. We do not want to talk about this issue right now. Kharge ji, who is the Congress president, will send someone to speak with the winning MLAs. After that, they will take their opinion, and then the high command will decide. This is our Congress policy," Tharoor said.

He also pointed out that initial trends appeared favourable for the UDF, with some prominent leaders from the Left Democratic Front trailing.

"The encouraging thing is that within an hour and a quarter, there seems to be a very clear trend in our favour, and even some reasonably popular politicians from the LDF are trailing. I agree it is entirely premature because only a couple of rounds have been counted," Tharoor told reporters.

According to official Election Commission trends, the Congress-led UDF crossed the halfway mark with leads in 82 seats. The Congress itself was leading in 50 seats, while its ally, the Muslim League, was ahead in 17 seats. Meanwhile, the LDF was leading in 51 seats around 10 am. The counting process began with postal ballots, followed by Electronic Voting Machine votes from 8:30 am, with round-wise updates being published in real time on the ECINET platform and the Election Commission’s official portal.

[With ANI inputs]