T P Sreenivasan, former Ambassador and Governor for India in the International Atomic Energy Agency, had a surprise guest on Tuesday at his residence in Golf Links at Thiruvananthapuram. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the BJP candidate contesting from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency called on the Ambassador, an absolutely apolitical person, who spends his retired life playing golf, writing and delivering speeches at various functions.
“There is nothing surprising in Rajeev’s visit to my house. We have been friends for quite sometime and I wished him all the best in the ensuing Lok Sabha election. He asked me to help him and I assured him of whatever help I could do,” Sreenivasan told The Pioneer.
It may be remembered that Sreenivasan was the one ho coordinated the election campaign of Sasi Tharoor in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Tharoor and Sreenivasan were colleagues in the United Nations where the former was a deputy secretary general.
“Well, Sasi’s interests got deviated after the election and we lost touch. But I welcome the decision of Rajeev to contest from Thiruvananthapuram. He has experience and is reasonably young.
We need people like him to play a major role in the future of Thiruvananthapuram as well as the nation,” said Sreenivasan. The veteran diplomat was all praise for the good works done by Rajeev Chandrasekhar during the last five years.
“He could replicate the same here in Kerala too and we should give him a chance to this young man,” said Sreenivasan who also presented a copy of his book Encounters (in which one chapter is on Sasi Tharoor) to Chandrasekhar.