Congress presidential election: Shashi Tharoor APOLOGISES for MAP Blunder, says `not done on purpose`

Shashi Tharoor APOLOGISES for MAP Blunder: Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor has tendered an unconditional apology for showing a distorted map of India in his election manifesto, saying that it was not done on purpose.

New Delhi: Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor on Friday apologised for showing a distorted map of India in his election manifesto, saying that it was not done on purpose. The Kerala Congress MP faced criticism for not showing parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on the map displayed in his election manifesto.

The BJP grabbed the opportunity to target the Congress presidential candidate over the map blunder, saying he put a "mutilated map" not having parts of Jammu and Kashmir may be to "find favour" with the Gandhis.

Later, Tharoor "apologised" unconditionally for the error, and said, "No one does such things on purpose. A small team of volunteers made a mistake. We rectified it immediately."

Besides it, there was also a typo on the last page of the manifesto - tomorrow was misspelled as 'tomorror' in the tag line 'Think Tharoor Think Tomorrow.'

After filing his nomination on Friday, Tharoor released the manifesto which had India's map that did not appear accurate as some parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were omitted. Later his office said the map has been corrected.

In a tweet, BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya said Tharoor put a mutilated map of India in his manifesto. Taking a swipe at Tharoor, he said, "While Rahul Gandhi is supposedly on a Bharat Jodo Yatra, wannabe Congress President is hell bent on dismembering India. May be he thinks this might help find favour with the Gandhis."

In 2019 also, Tharoor came under attack for sharing a picture of a protest against the CAA act which showed a map of India without PoK.

Echoing similar sentiments, BJP's national spokesperson RP Singh said, "It is not a mistake or blunder but laid policy of Congress about Jammu and Kashmir."

Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge are the main contenders in the Congress presidential race with both the leaders filing their nominations on Friday. The veteran Kharge appears to be a clear favourite.

Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi, too, has filed his nomination. Earlier, Digvijaya Singh and Ashok Gehlot said that they have dropped out of the race.

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister visited Kharge at his residence this morning. "I told him that I stand by him and can`t even think of contesting against him, I will be his proposer," Singh told reporters. 

Nominations for the post of Congress president closed at 3 pm today and results will be declared on October 19.