Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Congress leadership is likely to meet senior party member Shashi Tharoor after his absence from a brainstorming session on Kerala elections last week triggered a row, suggesting he was unhappy with the party.Sources said the party brass is thinking of inviting Tharoor for a discussion to address his grievances.Tharoor set tongues wagging after he stayed away from a meeting to which select senior Kerala functionaries were invited by AICC to discuss strategy for the upcoming state elections. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi chaired the meeting, which was attended by all key party members from the poll-bound state.While Tharoor, who was in Kozhikode for Kerala Literature Festival, said he had informed the party about his inability to attend the session, the Thiruvananthapuram MP also underlined that he has some issues with the party which he wants to discuss with the leadership. He even corroborated press reports about his unhappiness, saying some of them were correct.Sources said the thinking in the party is that the Kerala MP should be invited for a discussion to address his grievances. According to a party manager, the brass wants to ensure that the party is united going into the Kerala elections in which it believes the opposition alliance, United Democratic Front (UDF), has a good chance of dislodging the governing Left Democratic Front (LDF) alliance, its hopes raised by Opposition’s strong performance in the local body elections last month.It is felt that Tharoor has his own pull with the electorate and should actively participate in the run-up to the polls to boost the party’s prospects. However, the Lok Sabha MP has his detractors in the organisation who blame him for repeatedly taking a stance at variance with Congress and even being soft on BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The sudden emergence of wrinkles in the Kerala party organisation last week left many disturbed as developments of the last couple of months had indicated a new-found unity in the otherwise fractious unit. Tharoor not only attended party events like Lakshya but also clarified that he had never diverged from the party stance on key issues. But the supposed thaw was shattered by his absence from the AICC meeting last week.
