"He's Not With Us": Congress Leader After Shashi Tharoor's "Loyalty" Remark

Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan on Sunday hit out at party colleague Shashi Tharoor again, saying that he will not be invited to any party programme in the state capital till he changes his stance on the national security issue.

Mr Muraleedharan said that Mr Tharoor, also a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, was no longer considered as "one of us".

He said that the party's national leadership will decide what action is required against the Congress MP.

"Till he (Tharoor) changes his stance, we will not invite him to any party programme held in Thiruvananthapuram. He is not with us, so there is no question of him boycotting an event," Mr Muraleedharan said.

He was replying to reporters' queries seeking his view on Mr Tharoor sticking to his stand on the issue of national security.

His response also comes a day after Mr Tharoor had said that the nation comes first and parties are the means of making the country better.

The Congress MP had also said that a lot of people have been very critical of him because of his stand supporting the armed forces and the central government in connection with what happened recently in the country and its borders.

"But I will stand my ground, because I believe this is the right thing for the country," he had said at an event in Kochi on Saturday.

"Which is your first loyalty? To my mind, the nation comes first. Parties are a means of making the nation better. So to my mind, whichever party you belong to, the objective of that party is to create a better India in its own way," he said.

Mr Tharoor had also said that when people like him call for cooperating with other parties in the interests of national security, their parties feel that it's disloyal to them, and that becomes a big problem.

Mr Muraleedharn had earlier hit out at Mr Tharoor over the sharing of a survey suggesting he is UDF's most preferred choice for Chief Minister, saying "he should first decide which party he belongs to".

Mr Muraleedharan had taken the swipe at the Thiruvananthapuram MP amid a widening rift between Mr Tharoor and the party's central leadership over his reactions following the Pahalgam terror attack, which have drawn sharp criticism within the Congress, with some of his comments seen as putting the party on the defensive.

The senior Congress leader had also attacked Mr Tharoor following his article criticising Indira Gandhi over the Emergency, which appeared in a Malayalam daily.

Mr Muraleedharan had urged the CWC member to choose a clear political path if he felt constrained within the Congress.