BJP should focus on development, instead of communalism: Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who won a fourth consecutive time from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, on Tuesday said that the poll results were a lesson for the BJP that they do better when they go on other tracks, like development, instead of communalism.

Tharoor said that the poll results were also a "serious message by the electorate to the BJP that their kind of governance needs to improve colossally".

The Congress leader said that the saffron party will be able to appeal to voters in Kerala only if it goes beyond the "classic sort of north Indian BJP template".

"... I always felt that the BJP was hitting a ceiling in Kerala because of the communalism embodied in their messaging. That when they go on other tracks they do better. Whether it was the development track that Rajeev Chandrasekhar espoused here or the conscious outreach to minorities and for sure by Suresh Gopi.
 

"When you go beyond the classic sort of north Indian BJP template, only then can you appeal to voters in Kerala. And that's been a very clear discovery or confirmation of the selection," he told PTI video.

Tharoor further said that it was always clear that crossing 400 was impossible for the BJP, attaining 300 was very difficult and reaching 200 would be a challenge.

"What I can say is that we were always clear that 'chaarso (400) paar' was impossible, it was a fantasy, and 'teenso (300) paar' was very difficult. 'Doso (200) paar', we said, would be a challenge for the BJP," he said.