Thiruvananthapuram, March 19 -- The Lok Sabha polls should be fought on "perennial issues" like poverty and disease and not on a "tragedy of one moment", says Congress leader Shashi Tharoor while accusing the BJP-led government of trying to turn the 2019 vote into a "khaki election" after the Pulwama attack.

The momentum was with the Congress when the Pulwama tragedy struck on February 14, killing 40 CRPF soldiers, Tharoor said, hitting out at the government for trying to make the upcoming Lok Sabha polls a "national security based election".

"We were doing very well by all estimations and the momentum was with us when the Pulwama tragedy struck us. Thereafter, the government has tried to make this a khaki election, a national security-...