Click to play videoThiruvananthapuram: Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, is not a local man and does not speak the best Malayalam.
But the international diplomat-turned-politician brings with him a rare enthusiasm and the experience of having worked in several countries.
He has now traded off his suit and tie for the mundu and tricolour scarf, the handshake for the namaste and the air-conditioned comfort of the UN office in New York for the heat, dust and sweat of Thiruvananthapuram.
But with less than two weeks left for polling in the constituency, Tharoor will need more than just luck and his personal charisma to secure a victory.
Both Tharoor and his constituency are new to each other and added to that is the language barrier.
His Malayalam is not very fluent, but he takes that more as a challenge than a handicap.
Tharooor assures rural voters that their voices would be heard in Delhi both in English and Hindi. He is also spending more time reaching out to them.
"Well I think you can see me talking to the common man. But in my case because my experience has been a bit different, people seem to think that I can thrive only in air conditioned offices. I want to prove them otherwise," says Tharoor.
Tharoor's real problem is in convincing voters that he is not using Thiruvananthapuram as just a stepladder for bigger things in Indian politics and that he would be there for them over the next five years.
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