Congress rift deepens: K Muraleedharan criticises Shashi Tharoor's stand on Centre; bars him from events in Thiruvananthapuram

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan on Sunday launched a scathing attack against fellow party MP Shashi Tharoor , declaring that the Thiruvananthapuram parliamentarian will not be invited to any Congress events in the state capital until he changes his position on national security matters.

Muraleedharan, a prominent figure in the Kerala Congress unit, said Tharoor was no longer seen as “one of us” and hinted at possible disciplinary action from the party’s national leadership.

“Till he (Tharoor) changes his stance, we will not invite him to any party programme held in Thiruvananthapuram. He is not with us, so there is no question of him boycotting an event,” Muraleedharan told reporters, as quoted by PTI.

His remarks came a day after Tharoor, a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, defended his stand on national security at an event in Kochi. Tharoor said, “To my mind, the nation comes first. Parties are a means of making the nation better.” He acknowledged facing criticism from within the party for supporting the armed forces and the central government on recent national security issues.

“But I will stand my ground because I believe this is the right thing for the country,” Tharoor said, adding that when leaders like him advocate cross-party cooperation in the interest of national security, their own parties often view it as disloyalty, something he described as “a big problem.”

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This is not the first time Muraleedharan has publicly criticised Tharoor. Earlier, he took a dig at the MP over the sharing of a survey that suggested Tharoor was the United Democratic Front’s most preferred candidate for chief minister. “He should first decide which party he belongs to,” Muraleedharan had said, according to PTI.

Tensions have been rising between Tharoor and the Congress, particularly after his comments following the Pahalgam terror attack , which some party leaders believe weakened the Congress’s position.

Muraleedharan also criticised Tharoor over a newspaper article in which the MP questioned former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s handling of the Emergency. Muraleedharan said that if Tharoor feels constrained within the Congress, he should choose a “clear political path.”