Controversies, big and small, have cast a shadow over his life ever since he entered the political scene in India. But few in the public space would ever want to go through the kind of political controversies and personal tragedies that minister of state for HRD Shashi Tharoor went through in the past couple of weeks.All through the storm, Tharoor had the support of his party both at the Centre and in the state. Though there were some stray voices from within the Congress in Kerala that fielding Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram this time may not be in the best interests of the party, such comments were nipped in the bud by senior colleagues.The allusions pertaining to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar may tempt one to conclude that the suave, mildmannered politician has squandered the goodwill that he had enjoyed among the people, especially women, in Thiruvananthapuram, the constituency that he had represented for the past five years. But that may not be entirely true.Even when she thinks that Tharoor was getting involved in too many controversies related to his private life, Sandhya, the housewife who shot into fame after publicly opposing a CPI (M) road blockade in the Kerala capital in December, says that he “represented the constituency well”. But she too is concerned about the impact that too much of bad press about one’s personal or private life can have on electoral prospects.Tharoor is appreciated by the locals for what may seem like mundane actions, but what matters is that he did do his bit to ease the daily grind for many in his constituency.“We commute by train to our office in Thiruvananthapuram and wanted more trains to have stops at Parassala and Neyyattinkara,” says Lalitha M, adding that the MP duly did the needful.Thiruvananthapuram is a constituency that has elected famous leaders like VK Krishna Menon, K Karunakaran and PK Vasudevan Nair.After winning it two times in a row, the Communist Party of India (CPI) was getting ready for a third victory in 2009 by fielding P Ramachandran when Congress pulled off a coup by bringing in Tharoor.The diplomat-turned-politician with his flamboyant style won by a record margin of 1 lakh votes.EM Najeeb, managing director, Air Travel Enterprises, a Thiruvananthapuram-based agency, says Tharoor endeared himself to people by his accessibility. “He interacted well with every section of the people,” Najeeb says.“He also supported projects like Vizinjam terminal and brought the UAE consulate to Thiruvananthapuram,” he adds. Others like Irudayarajan, a professor at the Centre for Development Studies support Tharoor as he had a “vision for the development of the city”.Not everyone in the constituency shares the same feeling about Tharoor and his performance. According to historian MG Sasibhushan, people voted for Tharoor cutting across political lines in 2009 because of his oratorical skills and image as an intellectual.“But voters here are cynical,” he says. “They are definitely going to ask how much time he spent for his constituency. The answer to this question is going to be tricky, especially in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.”There are other voters who are not happy with Tharoor’s style of courting controversy.“We expect politicians to keep their private life simple, modest and free from controversies,” said Anoop Ambika, an entrepreneur at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram’s IT hub.In the changed scenario it remains to be seen whether the Congress will, in the first place, field Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram. Even before the latest controversy broke out, the opposition in Kerala, especially CPI, had started looking for a suitable opponent for Tharoor. The BJP is likely to make the maximum from the controversy as the constituency is one of their strongholds.CPI, the arch rival of the Congress in Thiruvananthapuram, points out that Tharoor hasn’t achieved much success by raising the high court bench issue, a touchy subject in the state capital.Tharoor had attempted to end an almost 50-year-old stalemate by introducing a private member’s bill in the Lok Sabha to enact legislation “to establish permanent benches of the high court in state capitals where the permanent bench of the high court concerned is situated at a place other than the state capital.” If this legislation is enacted, it will pave the way for a Kerala high court bench in Thiruvananthapuram.“His main promise was to bring the high court bench to Thiruvananthapuram which has not happened,” said Venjarammud Sasi, district secretary, CPI.Sasi has another gripe. “He said Thiruvananthapuram would be developed into a city of international class. But today, with waste management emerging as a major issue, the whole city is more like a dump yard. The railway hospital or railway workshop, promised earlier, has not materialized.”Indeed, many of Tharoor’s plans and visions for the city may not have been realized. But people like KC Chandrahasan, managing director of Kerala Travels, are of the view that this is precisely why people of Thiruvananthapuram cannot to afford to lose him at the present juncture.Not fielding him now would be like playing into the hands of the opposition parties, says Meena Mohan, a school teacher. According to her, Tharoor is unlike the typical politician. “He is young, idealistic and positive. He talks differently and connects better with the younger generation.”