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Tour not linked to factionalism: Tharoor
Satheesan had said on Tuesday that the party has enough space for everyone but it will not tolerate any move to revive factionalism and a section of media was propping up and ballooning certain leaders as part of its agenda
Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday rejected opposition leader V D Satheesan’s charges that “his trip to north Kerala was part of factionalism” and asked him to prove them.
Talking to the reporters in Kannur (north Kerala) as part of his four-day tour of Malabar he said that he was anguished to hear such a complaint and asked “how talking to students, meeting religious leaders, writers and attending programmes scheduled much earlier will become sectarianism”. He said all his programmes were informed to respective district Congress committees and other bodies much earlier.
“I have not joined any of the famous groups in the party. I have no plan to float one either. My group will be a united Congress party. I am against factionalism,” he said, adding, “people who make such wild charges should explain them properly”.
Satheesan had said on Tuesday that the party has enough space for everyone but it will not tolerate any move to revive factionalism and a section of media was propping up and ballooning certain leaders as part of its agenda.
“I hope you (media) have not come here with balloon and air. I am sad and bit irritated to hear such statements. Two party MPs are meeting many people openly and talking to them. Do we say anything against the party? I am ready to give the media that needle to burst the balloon,” said Tharoor ridiculing Satheesan’s statement that leaders like him were “inflated balloons” and could be flattened with a pin prick.
Thaoor said he has “no differences with anyone in the party” and in his 14 years of political career he has not spoken or acted against anyone. “I don’t know why some leaders are getting worried like this. I don’t know some people are getting troubled when we meet people from various walks of life openly,” he said.
Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan, who organised Tharoor’s tour, said he had sent letters to the Congress president and others about the “indifferent attitude” meted out to them in last four days. “We respect everyone including the one who is holding the needle to prick the balloon,” he said criticising Satheesan’s remarks.
In Delhi, party general secretary Tariq Anwar said he would not think that Tharoor’s tour to north Kerala was part of any factional feud but reminded all party leaders that everyone should follow directions of the state president in issues concerning the organisation.
A section of the party opposed Tharoor’s outing in north Kerala vigorously fearing that he was trying to position himself as the CM candidate in 2026 assembly elections. Till now, he was not active in state politics but his sudden emergence has worried them. Many senior leaders boycotted his programmes in north Kerala. When he contested for the party president’s post two months back, Thiruvananthapuram MP received maximum resistance from his own state and many had openly campaigned against him.
