New Delhi: In an interview with The Wire, Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has agreed that his party was “stunned into negligence” by its defeat in the general elections in May which delayed state-level changes in Haryana. Had these changes taken place six months earlier, the Congress could have won the state in the recent assembly elections, said Tharoor.In an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Tharoor also forcefully stands by his belief that a free and fair election is the best way of choosing the new Congress president but accepts that his is a lonely voice and possibly a minority of one.Tharoor, who was a minister of state for external affairs, and then HRD, in the Manmohan Singh government, says senior leaders of the Congress party are against choosing the new president through an election because they believe it will create divisiveness and factionalism in the party and could also lead to a lopsided result. He said that he has discussed this with both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi but refused to reveal their thinking.Speaking about the new think tank set up by Sonia Gandhi to determine Congress’s position on issues of critical importance, Tharoor said he did not know why he was not chosen as a member of this think tank. As he put it, he cannot demand to be made a member. And if the party believes it doesn’t need him it has a right to come to that conclusion. Though repeatedly asked, he would not say whether he was disappointed by his exclusion. He said: “I’m available to the party whenever they need me and in whatever capacity.”In his 45-minute interview, Tharoor said that the Congress’s performance in Maharashtra and Haryana is a sign that the party is reviving but this is only the very beginning of what is likely to be a lengthy process. He also believes that the recent state elections clearly suggest that economic issues such as unemployment and farmer distress are becoming more important than political issues such as national security and undocumented immigration.Tharoor readily accepted that in Maharashtra, where the NCP now has more seats than the Congress both at the vidhan sabha and Lok Sabha levels, there’s a need to re-think the relationship between the two allies. Today, the Congress is the junior partner. Shashi praised NCP strongman Sharad Pawar’s tireless campaigning, adding that it captured the imagination of the country.Also read: Punjab Bypolls: Congress Ousts Akali Dal From Its Stronghold in JalalabadHowever, he refused to accept that the fact that the Congress’s performance in Haryana, Maharashtra and in the by-polls has improved, at a time when there was no major participation from the Gandhis, is a clear indication that the party can survive without the Gandhis and even perform better. But he accepted that in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in December and, more recently, in Maharashtra and Haryana, voters have shown more faith in the Congress’s state and local leadership than in its national leadership.Speaking about the divide in the Congress between the old guard and the young leadership, Tharoor said it was critical that both should find fair representation in the party. He believes that Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Capt. Amarinder Singh and Kamal Nath have shown that the party cannot do without the wisdom and experience of the elder generation but, equally, it needs to constantly infuse young blood into its ranks.Tharoor also said that along with choosing a new president the Congress party needs to choose new members for the Central Working Committee and new general secretaries. He said that the party needs to enforce its own constitutional requirement that 12 members of the CWC are elected by the AICC and not nominated by the party president. Tharoor also said that Congress should implement the block development council structure of party organisation – which exists in Kerala – in states like Bihar and UP.Finally, speaking about the new session of parliament which convenes on November 18, Shashi Tharoor was confident that the Congress, despite its limited numbers, would make a significant impact opposing the BJP by the facts at the command of its speakers and the eloquence and force of their delivery.