Congress leader Shashi Tharoor may get party notice for ‘praising’ PM Modi

Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker Shashi Tharoor has landed in trouble over his ‘praise’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the party planning to seek an explanation from him.

Tharoor and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi had recently supported party colleague Jairam Ramesh’s statement that ‘demonising the Prime Minister was wrong and he should be praised for the right things he does.’ Tharoor added that there was no harm in supporting good work and one should understand why people were backing Modi.

Tharoor had, however, clarified that it doesn’t mean he was supporting Modi and had even claimed that two cases were pending against him for criticizing the PM.

The party decision came a day after Kerala Congress leaders attacked the Kerala lawmaker, who is not in the country currently, with a former chief of the party’s state unit suggesting that he join the BJP. A few leaders also wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi seeking action against him.

Opposition leader in the state Ramesh Chennithala and PCC chief Mullapally



Ramachandran said that Modi’s actions were unacceptable all the time and there was no need to portray him in good light. Former PCC chief K Muralidharan went a step further saying Tharoor would be better off joining the BJP while Congress MP from Thissur, T N Prathapan wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi seeking action against Tharoor.

“It seems Tharoor is scared of case against him (case relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar). Instead of seeking largesse from opponents he should fight it out in the court. He is portraying the party in bad light and it is better for him to join the BJP,” said Muralidharan, party MP from Vatakara.

Tharoor, has not always been in the good books of many state party leaders, right from 2009, when as a rank outsider he was fielded by the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections and won by 99,996 votes and has been keeping the seat since then.

In 2014, Tharoor won the seat by 15,000 votes and in 2019 by 99,989 votes. He had termed the 2014 vote his toughest election as his wife Sunanda Pushkar had been found dead in a posh Delhi hotel in the January of that year.