Nirmala Sitharaman visits Tharoor in hospital

A day after Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor suffered a head injury while performing a temple ritual on Monday, Union Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman visited him at the hospital where he is recovering. Tharoor received six stitches on his head and is under 24-hour observation at the hospital.

In a tweet posted on Tuesday morning, Shashi Tharoor praised the BJP leader for visiting him “amid her hectic electioneering in Kerala.”

“Civility is a rare virtue in Indian politics – great to see her practice it by example!” he said in the tweet.

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Shashi Tharoor

@ShashiTharoor

Touched by the gesture of @nsitharaman, who dropped by today morning to visit me in the hospital, amid her hectic electioneering in Kerala. Civility is a rare virtue in Indian politics – great to see her practice it by example!

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Tharoor also tweeted that C Divakaran, former minister and the LDF candidate who is contesting against Tharoor in the Lok Sabha elections, called to “express concern about my well-being.”

Shashi Tharoor

@ShashiTharoor

Very gracious of my LDF rival C.Divakaran to call this morning to express concern about my well-being. Said he had spoken to the Hospital Superintendent to assure himself I would be ok. “Don’t be demoralised”, he added. I’m not: I’m more determined than ever to see this through!

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Tharoor, the UDF candidate for the Lok Sabha elections, was taking part in a Tulabharam ritual on Vishu Day when he was injured at the Gandhari Amman Temple in the city. It is a Hindu ritual in which a person is weighed against gold, grain or fruits and the equivalent weight is offered as a donation.

He fell and injured his head when the scale broke. He was treated at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College.

As Kerala’s polling day on April 23 approaches, parties are campaigning at full force in the state this week. National leaders of the LDF, UDF and the BJP will be electioneering in Kerala in the coming days.

Defence Minister Nirmala had arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday evening and took part in a public meeting for candidate Sobha Surendran in Attingal. She is also scheduled to campaign in Kannur.

Tharoor is the two-time sitting MP from the constituency. He will be contesting against the NDA’s Kummanam Rajasekharan, a BJP leader and former Governor of Mizoram, and the LDF’s C Divakaran, a former trade union leader and the sitting MLA Nedumangad constituency in Thiruvananthapuram.