Tharoor skips Congress strategy meet amid discontent with party leadership
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor skipped a key party meeting on Kerala polls, reportedly upset over being sidelined and not acknowledged by Rahul Gandhi at a recent Kochi event. Party sources cite renewed differences within the state unit
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday skipped a key strategy meeting of the party for the upcoming Kerala polls, as he is believed to be upset over Rahul Gandhi not properly acknowledging his presence at a recent event and repeated attempts by state leaders to sideline him.
Sources said that while a series of events had led to Tharoor’s disappointment with the treatment meted out to him, the tipping point was Gandhi not acknowledging him at the Maha Panchayath held in Kochi on January 19 to felicitate the local body poll winners.
Gandhi acknowledged other senior leaders present on the stage and took their names but did not mention Tharoor, a four-time MP and one of the three Congress Working Committee members from the state, who was also on the dais, the sources said.
Tharoor’s office said he had informed the party of his inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode.
However, according to sources close to him, he is very upset at the treatment meted out to him by the party, especially after differences had been ironed out at the Wayanad meetings on the sidelines of the Lakshya 2026 leadership camp organised by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee to chalk out strategies for the upcoming state Assembly elections.
After that conclave, Tharoor had said that he had never deviated from the party line.
There was no official reaction from the Congress on the issue.
A united call was given by the Kerala Congress leaders from Wayanad to take on the Left Democratic Front in the upcoming Assembly polls. An understanding was believed to have been reached that Tharoor would not contest but campaign across the state.
However, days later, differences within the state unit have again surfaced, with Tharoor seemingly unhappy with the way he was treated in Kochi recently.
Tharoor has also sent messages to key party functionaries, including party general secretaries K C Venugopal and Deepa Das Munshi, the AICC in-charge of Kerala, pointing out the mistreatment meted out to him.
Tharoor’s statements and articles had invited sharp criticism from Congress leaders at the national and state levels in the recent past.
A row had erupted last year over his comments on the India-Pakistan conflict and the diplomatic outreach after the Pahalgam attack. His remarks were at variance with the Congress stand and several party leaders had questioned his intentions.
Tharoor, however, has maintained that there is no variance in his stance on foreign policy and that there must be bipartisanship.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday chaired a key meeting of the party here with Kerala leaders to fine-tune the party’s strategy for the Assembly polls.
Gandhi, Venugopal, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sunny Joseph and Congress Legislature Party leader V D Satheesan, among others, attended the meeting at Kharge’s residence.