Congress MP Shashi Tharoor – whose relationship with the party seems to be drawing ever closer to the point of no return –skipped yet another party meeting Tuesday afternoon, this time at ex-chief Sonia Gandhi's Delhi home, to prepare for next week's Parliament session, at which the union budget will be tabled and the ruling BJP will be questioned over the G-RAM-G jobs guarantee scheme.
Current party boss Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi were present, as too were senior leaders like P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari, and Manish Tiwari.
Sources told NDTV Tharoor is 'abroad' – at a literature festival in Dubai – and will return later tonight. Sources also said he had informed the party of his non-availability.
This is the second time in the past four days Tharoor has skipped a top-level party meeting.
Last week he did not attend one to discuss the April Assembly election in Kerala. Tharoor is the Congress' Lok Sabha MP from state capital Thiruvananthapuram, a seat he has held since 2009.
RECAP | Tharoor Was Asked Why He Missed Key Congress Meet. What He Said
Last week sources spoke of Tharoor being 'upset' with Rahul Gandhi over a 'lack of respect' shown to him when the latter visited Kerala. What then followed was a day of uncertainty.
NDTV was initially told Tharoor would not attend the meeting.
But hours later sources close to him claimed he would show up – via a video link – and was unable to be physically present because of a prior engagement, i.e., an appearance at a literature festival in Kochi. But when the meeting began Tharoor was absent, again.
On that instance too Tharoor reportedly told the party he would not be available.
In fact, he later shut down any talk of skipping that meeting, telling reporters, quite firmly, the issue had been fully discussed within the party and he would not make public comments.
He also skipped three meetings between November and December.
A diplomat by training, Tharoor is widely seen as being on thin ice with the Congress after comments seeming to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP.
These include remarks about the Prime Minister's handling of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, i.e., the retaliatory military strikes on Pakistan, as well as occasional critical comments in the media about the party and its leadership issues.
The remarks triggered fierce retorts from the Congress, including bitter comments about Tharoor angling for a jump to the BJP. Tharoor, however, flatly ruled out any talk of a switch; in June last year he told NDTV he had remained loyal to the party for 16 years.
"It (praise for the Prime Minister) is not a sign of my leaping to join his party... as some people have, unfortunately, been implying. It is a statement of national unity..." he said.
But talk of that switch, however, never really went away.
In fact the tension played out in Nagpur too, after Tharoor posted a selfie with India men's cricket team coach Gautam Gambhir, who is a former BJP MP from Delhi, and whom he praised for holding down "the second-hardest job in India, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
The BJP's Shehzad Poonawalla responded. He drew parallels between Tharoor's comment about cricket fans second-guessing Gambhir's coaching and tactics and the opposition doing the same to the PM, accusing the latter of acting against national interests.
Tharoor to CPIM?
Meanwhile, rumours of Tharoor quitting the Congress extended to talk of him joining Kerala's ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Asked about this on Monday Tharoor played coy; he said that he had seen the news reports but declined to comment on the matter. Senior CPIM leader MV Govindan dismissed any talk about Tharoor joining the party as 'speculation'.
RECAP | Tharoor's 'No Comments' Response To CPI(M) Talks Rumours
Ahead of the Kerala election the Congress is trying hard to maintain the momentum from surprising wins in last month's municipal election. VD Satheesan, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, insisted he is unaware of 'problems' Tharoor may have caused the Congress.
Tharoor's relationship with the Congress has been on shaky ground, political analysts indicate, since he signed up to be part of the 'G-23', the group of senior Congress leaders who wrote to then-boss Sonia Gandhi in 2022 demanding an overhaul of the party's leadership structure.
The Congress, though, appears reluctant to take disciplinary action against Tharoor. And that, sources said last month is because of electoral arithmetic before the Kerala election.
The Congress is reluctant to come down on Tharoor because of tension in its Kerala unit between Tharoor and National General Secretary KC Venugopal. The latter is seen as Rahul Gandhi's close ally and the most prominent figure after Gandhi and Kharge.
Tharoor, however, has significant sway among voters, which is key before the election.
Sources suggested to NDTV Tharoor is aware of the Congress' position in this regard and is eyeing the Chief Minister's job should the UDF, i.e., the party-led opposition alliance, the United Democratic Front, win the election. This stand-off is potentially why Tharoor takes opportunities to jab the Congress and, simultaneously (and confusingly) is also why the party doesn't react.
