Senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor skipped another key party meeting on Tuesday, intensifying speculation about his unease with the Congress leadership. Tharoor was absent from the party’s parliamentary strategy group meeting held ahead of the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament. According to PTI, Tharoor could not attend the meeting as he was returning from Dubai, where he had participated in a literature festival, and had informed the party in advance about his unavailability. The meeting was chaired by Congress Parliamentary Party president Sonia Gandhi and attended by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
Tharoor Feels Sidelined Amid Rift
This comes days after Tharoor missed a high-level Kerala poll strategy meeting in Delhi, citing his engagement at the Kerala Literature Festival. While the Congress leadership has maintained that his absences were due to prior commitments, sources suggest Tharoor felt “deeply insulted” after Rahul Gandhi allegedly did not acknowledge him at a public event in Kochi earlier this month, despite naming several other senior leaders present on the dais. Sources close to Tharoor have said he feels sidelined despite being one of the three Congress Working Committee members from Kerala. The internal discord comes at a sensitive time, with Kerala heading towards Assembly elections expected by May 2026.
The Congress-led UDF is seeking to reclaim power from the CPI(M)-led LDF, while the BJP is also positioning itself as a serious contender. Though there appeared to be a brief thaw when Tharoor spoke for the party in the Lok Sabha in December, recurring absences from party meetings indicate that state-level differences and internal friction persist.
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