Snubbed at Kochi Congress Mahapanchayat, Tharoor skips strategy meet and ignores party calls

Upset over the treatment allegedly meted out to him by Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, at the party’s recent “Maha Panchayat” meeting in Kochi, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday reportedly skipped a key party strategy meeting in New Delhi related to the upcoming Kerala Assembly polls.

Though Congress leaders attempted to persuade Tharoor, who is said to be protesting against his perceived neglect at the Kochi Mahapanchayat, to participate in the high-command–called strategy meeting in New Delhi, he did not relent.

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AICC General Secretary in charge of Kerala, Deepa Das Munshi, along with several Kerala leaders, reportedly tried to contact Tharoor, but he did not respond to their phone calls.

The Congress Maha Panchayat meeting in Kochi reportedly turned bitter for Tharoor, who felt sidelined by the party leadership. Peeved over the neglect he experienced at the event, Tharoor is said to have walked out of the Mahapanchayat midway.

According to reports, Tharoor felt insulted by what he perceived as deliberate humiliation on the Mahapanchayat stage. During his address, Rahul Gandhi reportedly mentioned other Kerala leaders by name but ignored Tharoor. He is also said to have overlooked Tharoor while greeting leaders on the stage. Tharoor’s speech was allegedly curtailed to conclude just as Rahul Gandhi arrived on stage. Visuals of the incident have since been widely discussed on social media.

The episode reportedly left Tharoor feeling “unwanted” by the Congress leadership and has raised serious questions about his future within the party. Tharoor is said to be particularly unhappy with the stage seating arrangement and the truncation of his speech at the Kochi event attended by Rahul Gandhi. Despite being a member of the Congress Working Committee, Tharoor was reportedly given a seat at the extreme end of the stage.

Reports suggest that the alleged mistreatment was not confined to Tharoor alone. Local media aired visuals purportedly showing Rahul Gandhi asking former KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, who was seated near him, to change his seat, following which Sudhakaran moved elsewhere. Reports also emerged claiming that Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan was not allowed to travel in Rahul Gandhi’s car.

Meanwhile, Tharoor’s office stated that the MP had informed the party of his inability to attend the New Delhi meeting due to prior commitments at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode.

Tharoor had recently moved closer to the Congress leadership after ending his estrangement with the party at the Lakshya camp in Wayanad. He had said he enjoyed interacting with senior colleagues at the two-day Lakshya Leadership Summit. Earlier this month, in a post on X, Tharoor shared details of his interactions with Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, Kerala Assembly Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, and other leaders at the summit, which was organised to project strength and unity ahead of the Kerala Assembly elections.

However, the developments at the Kochi Mahapanchayat appear to have altered that trajectory, adding to existing tensions within the Kerala Congress unit over Tharoor’s positioning and his past statements, which have at times diverged from the party line.