‘Groups not needed in Congress’: Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor slams party delegates amid rift

Shashi Tharoor asserted that the Congress of Kerala did not require "A" or "I" groups and that the party needed to be united.

Image Source: ANI

New Delhi: Amid the political brawl happening in the Kerala Congress government, the senior leader and third-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, Shashi Tharoor stressed on the unification of the party and said that petty group politics do not have any place in the state unit. Shashi Tharoor was addressing a function at Bodhigram in Pathanamthitta on Sunday, December 4, 2022.

The former UN delegate asserted that the Congress of Kerala did not require "A" or "I" groups and that the party needed to be united. He was referring to the two prominent factions that have long controlled the party hierarchy and are represented in the state Congress.

Former state home minister Ramesh Chennithala led the "I" group while former chief minister Oommen Chandy headed the "A" group.

During his visits to the various districts, he contended to be updating the presidents of the District Congress Committees (DCC).

Several Senior Congress leaders have criticised Tharoor for notifying the DCC presidents of his visits to certain districts, including state opposition leader V.D. Satheeshan. Nattakam Suresh, the president of the Kottayam DCC, and Praveen Kumar, the president of the Kozhikode DCC, had earlier stated that they were unaware of Tharoor's visit and that their lack of knowledge was not due to organisational hierarchy. 

In an argument with Nattakam Suresh, the president of the Kottayam DCC, Tharoor claimed that his office had intimidated Suresh ahead of his visit and that there was documentation as to who had called and when.

K. Muraleedharan, a senior Congress leader and the representative for the Vadakara seat, had criticised Natakam Suresh's remarks. Whatever a DCC president had to say, according to Muraleedharan, he should say it within the party. Nattakam Suresh, president of the DCC, shot back by saying that this also applied to K. Mualeedharan.