UDF plans to come out with detailed vision document for Kerala polls: Shashi Tharoor

Preparing for the electoral battle in Kerala, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said the United Democratic Front UDF plans to come out with a detailed document vision for the state. About the Union Budget 2026-27 presented in the Parliament on Sunday, the Congress leader said in the Finance Minister speech, there was not much related to Kerala that would have made him feel happy.

Preparing for the electoral battle in Kerala, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said the United Democratic Front (UDF) plans to come out with a detailed document vision for the state. In an interview to PTI at its headquarters in the national capital, Tharoor said certain ideas will be floated to generate more opportunities and development in Kerala. To a question about the messaging of UDF in the upcoming Assembly polls, Tharoor said, ''we want a prosperous Kerala''. ''We know how to govern... we have done governance both at the Centre and the state (Kerala). We have the experience,'' Tharoor said and also took a swipe at the state's ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP. The people have lost trust in the ruling LDF due to various corruption scandals and cases while the other party is communal, he said in a veiled reference to the BJP. ''Our plan is to come out with a detailed vision document,'' Tharoor said. Last week, Tharoor met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi for redressal of his grievances, after which he said ''all is good'' and ''we are all on the same page''. He had been upset over the treatment meted out to him at a Kochi event recently and attempts by some leaders to sideline him in Kerala. About the Union Budget 2026-27 presented in the Parliament on Sunday, the Congress leader said in the Finance Minister' speech, there was not much related to Kerala that would have made him feel happy. In a series of posts on X, Tharoor said that a disquieting sense of déjà vu pervades the finance minster's speech today. ''For a state that contributes so robustly to the nation's forex reserves, skilled workforce, and soft power, Kerala appears to be entirely invisible in the Centre's fiscal vision. A 'Budget of Invisible Kerala' in an election year is a message in itself. #UnionBudget2026,'' he said. According to him, the announcement of 7 new high-speed rail corridors across India is welcome for the nation, but the glaring exclusion of Kerala is indefensible. ''We are a high-density state crying out for modern transit. The Centre ignores us, and the State proposes paper projects it cannot afford. Our commuters are left with nothing. We need actual trains, not new acronyms,'' the senior Congress leader said. He also mentioned that while Vizhinjam port is a strategic national asset, there is zero special allocation for its last-mile connectivity, unlike the largesse shown to ports elsewhere. To treat this as a Kerala issue rather than a national priority is a failure of strategic imagination, he noted. Tharoor also said that the state's Budget was built on a fantasy of central funds that today's Union Budget has explicitly failed to deliver. ''Sadly, the Malayali is caught between a Centre indifferent to our pain and a State Government in denial of its own fiscal profligacy. We need an alternative that commands respect in Delhi and delivers development in Kerala. Right now, we have neither,'' he said. In Kerala, UDF aims to capture power again while BJP seeks to strengthen its electoral presence and LDF hopes to form the government for the third time in a row post Assembly elections that are expected in the coming months. Contrary to expectations in various quarters, there were no major announcements for the poll-bound state in the Budget. In the nearly 90-minute-long speech, the finance minister mentioned Kerala twice, once in relation to dedicated rare earth corridors and the second time in connection with turtle trails. ''A Scheme for Rare Earth Permanent Magnets was launched in November 2025. We now propose to support the mineral-rich states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to establish dedicated Rare Earth Corridors to promote mining, processing, research and manufacturing,'' Sitharaman said. The finance minister also referred to India's potential and opportunity to offer world-class trekking and hiking experience. ''We will develop ecologically sustainable (i) Mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir; Araku Valley in the Eastern Ghats and Podhigai Malai in the Western Ghats. (ii) Turtle Trails along key nesting sites in the coastal areas of Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala; and (iii) Bird watching trails along the Pulikat lake in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,'' she said. Sitharaman presented her ninth consecutive Budget on Sunday amid rising global uncertainties.

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