Shashi Tharoor responds to online petition that props him as UPA's PM candidate in 2019

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in a Facebook post on Friday that he was "surprised and touched" by a recent petition on the website 'Change.org' calling for him to be the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The petition received as many as 16,000 signatures.
Tharoor’s response to the idea of being PM? "Thank you, but no, thank you." He made it clear that he "neither supports nor endorses such a campaign."
"I am a member of Parliament for the Congress Party, nothing more and nothing less.The party has a settled leadership, which is not up for debate. When changes occur they do so through an established procedure." He said he discouraged his "followers" from signing the petition as well.

The petition, started by a resident of Thiruvananthapuram, the town Tharoor is an MP from, said it was "in (the) best interest of the world's largest democracy and to rejuvenate the opposition". It was addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Following the BJP's thumping win in Uttar Pradesh, political analysts are questioning party vice president Rahul Gandhi's leadership. In fact, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said that "there is no leader today with a pan India acceptability who can take on Modi & the BJP in 2019." The former J&K chief minister added that the opposition's strategy "needs to shift from criticism to (providing a) positive alternate".
Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar also recently said that the party should adopt the "rainbow coalition" model of the UPA.
"There is no harm if you to bend like a willow once in a while to allow the storm to blow over rather than stand like an oak," Aiyar said.