Shashi Tharoor: Feel like the batsman who scored a century but his team lost

Shashi Tharoor (File Photo)

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor may have emerged victorious in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, but he wasn’t exactly elated. He employed a cricket analogy to describe his mixed feelings on the win, as other leaders of his party hung their heads low.

Frustrated and dismayed at the loss his party suffered across India, Tharoor said he was feeling like a batsman who has scored a century but his team has lost.

“As my lead nears 50,000 with 72 percent counted, I feel like a batsman who has scored a century while his team has lost! It's a bittersweet emotion I will take some time to reflect on,” he tweeted.

As my lead nears 50,000 with 72% counted, i feel like a batsman who has scored a century while his team has lost! It's a bittersweet emotion I will take some time to reflect on. #TharoorForTvm

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 23, 2019

This term’s win from his constituency Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala marked a hat-trick for the former union minister. The seat he won from wasn’t an easy one, as it saw a tight contest between the Left Democratic Front, United Democratic Front, and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Tharoor defeated his main rival -- BJP candidate Kummanam Rajashekharan with a large margin, which turned out to be the same as he had secured in 2009 when he represented the parliamentary constituency for the first time.

The battle for ballots in Thiruvananthapuram hogged national limelight as many had speculated a favourable outcome for the BJP, given the Sabarimala verdict.

Also, Kerala is the only state where the Modi wave could not create much ripples and saffron dreams had to be put to rest, at least for the coming five years.

However, in the rest of the country, the BJP delivered an excellent performance, making inroads in states where it had a minimal presence until now. Case in point – Bengal. As BJP president Amit Shah had promised, the saffron cadre managed to up their seat share to a double digit.