Tharoor gets Congress ticket, calls it a ‘challenge’

September 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amid calls for his resignation over his "cattle class" remarks, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Tuesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi after returning from his trip to Africa. Tharoor, who is in charge of Africa and West Asia in the external affairs ministry, met Gandhi in the morning and shared impressions of his visit to Liberia and Ghana.

September 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has apologized for his recent comment that he was prepared to travel in the "cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows". "It's a silly expression but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle.

June 13th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - A massive crowd of Congress activists turned up at the airport here Saturday to greet Congress MP Shashi Tharoor as he arrived on his first visit to Kerala after assuming charge as minister of state for external affairs. Tharoor, a former UN undersecretary general, was literally mobbed as he emerged from the airport terminal.

May 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI -Shashi Tharoor, the former UN undersecretary general, will be sworn as a minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers Thursday. Sources close to Tharoor said he got a call from the Prime Minister's Office asking him to be present for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

May 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Former diplomat and first-time MP Shashi Tharoor Monday said that he has stopped writing columns in newspaper and periodicals as he wants to concentrate on the problems of his constituency. "I have stopped all the columns," Tharoor told reporters here.

May 16th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Former UN undersecretary general and Congress party's Shashi Tharoor won the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat by over 80,000 votes, making his debut in Indian politics. Tharoor got an early lead right as counting began and maintained it throughout.

April 17th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Former United Nations undersecretary general and Congress candidate from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor was Friday cooling off in a houseboat after the intense campaign for the April 16 poll to Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha constituencies. Tharoor, who is due to appear in a Kochi court Saturday in a complaint of dishonouring the national anthem, is travelling on the houseboat in the Vembanad Lake from Alappuzha to Kochi.

March 28th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Former United Nations diplomat and writer Shashi Tharoor on Saturday filed his nomination papers from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency. Tharoor filed the papers before District Collector Sanjay Kaul at the collectorate here.

March 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Shashi Tharoor has been appearing on TV talk shows taking questions ranging from what he wrote about Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a book to his plans for the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. In one talk show, Tharoor, who has lived in the US for the most part of his life, was asked if he is a 'US agent'.

March 21st, 2009 THIRUVANTHAPURAM - Former UN Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor and Congress party candidate from Thiruvanthapuram in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election has said that his priority will be the development of his constituency. "I am not looking at anything beyond a victory in the district, the constituency of Thiruvananthapuram that is the focus...

March 21st, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Vijayan Thomas, the chairman of the Congress-owned television channel in Kerala, has said he would contest as an independent candidate from the key Thiruvananthapuram constituency from where the party has fielded former UN undersecretary general Shashi Tharoor. Posters of Thomas, chairman of Jai Hind TV, have been put up across the constituency announcing his candidature.

March 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Eminent writer and former UN official Shashi Tharoor was named by the Congress in its list of 16 candidates who would contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kerala. As anticipated earlier, Tharoor would be contesting on the Congress party ticket from Thiruvananphapuram.

March 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Author, columnist and former UN undersecretary general Shashi Tharoor, whose name is being considered as the Congress candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, has met with strong resistance from the youth brigade of the party. Sunday evening, an angry group of activists believed to be from the Youth Congress marched towards the party headquarters in the Kerala here and burnt Tharoor in effigy.

March 7th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala Friday said former UN under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor's name could figure during the discussions to shortlist candidates from Kerala for the coming Lok Sabha polls. 'He has expressed his willingness to contest and now this will be discussed by the nine-member sub committee of our party led by party general secretary Mohsina Kidwai,' Chennithala told reporters here.

March 7th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Former UN under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor's readiness to contest the Lok Sabha election from Kerala will be discussed by the Congress, state president Ramesh Chennithala said Friday. 'He has expressed his willingness to contest.