Is Tharoor Set To Fly Out Of Congress Camp?

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s article in a southern daily extolling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s energy, dynamism and global outreach coincided with the declaration of the Nilambur Assembly byelection result, where the Congress-led United Democratic Front won by a comfortable margin. Tharoor had stayed away from electioneering, alleging that he had not been invited to campaign. The victory of the Congress candidate may, however, have put paid to the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s chief ministerial ambitions. A resurgent Congress, under the leadership of VD Satheeshan, put up a united fight to wrest the seat from the CPI-M, giving the Grand Old Party hope that it will defeat the Left in next year’s Assembly elections. On winning the Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth time, after a seesaw battle with BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Tharoor had declared that he would not contest another parliamentary election. Many saw this as his throwing in his hat for the chief ministerial race in the event of the UDF winning the 2026 Assembly elections. Now that looks unlikely, especially in the wake of what Congress leaders see as his cosying-up to the ruling dispensation. The government’s decision to name Tharoor to head one of the all-party delegations, tasked with explaining to the world India’s position after the Pahalgam terror attack on tourists and its subsequent action against terrorist bases deep in Pakistan, did not go down well with the Congress, which had not submitted his name to the government. Tharoor’s statements during the course of his delegation’s visit to the USA, Brazil and three other countries praising Modi for Operation Sindoor and daring to strike deep within Pakistan were scoffed at by Congress leaders such as Jairam Ramesh and Udit Raj, who called him ‘super spokesperson of the BJP’. Tharoor hit back, resulting in an ugly spat.

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Though he clarified in Moscow that he is not leaping to join the BJP, Tharoor has long been a thorn in the flesh of the Congress leadership, first when he joined the G-23 grouping of disgruntled party leaders who questioned the Gandhis’ leadership after successive election defeats. Then he decided to contest the Congress party president’s election against Gandhi family loyalist Kharge. Though he lost, he did manage to poll a substantial number of votes. He has often gone against the party line, especially in relation to Kerala issues. He praised the Adani Group’s Vizhinjam port project promoted by the Pinarayi Vijayan government, much to the discomfiture of the state Congress leadership. It remains to be seen if the Congress high command will act against Tharoor, who has claimed to have remained loyal to the party for 16 years. On his latest article, there was a studied silence till party president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a sharp and unmistakable dig at Tharoor, said, “For us it is country first, for some it is Modi first.” The charismatic Congress MP in reply posted on X a picture of a bird and the inscription: ‘Don’t ask permission to fly. The wings are yours. And the sky belongs to no one’. Whether Tharoor will indeed fly towards the saffron camp is a big question mark. The shrewd diplomat-politician is well aware that speaking his mind as he is wont to do will not go down well there.