Setting all speculations to rest, the government’s list of political leaders to head multi-party delegations abroad for diplomatic outreach included the name of Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor.

The government late Saturday evening released the full list of seven independent party delegations to be dispatched to major world capitals with a brief to expose Pakistan’s hand in the recent Pahalgam terror attack and to mobilise global support against cross-border terrorism

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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, in a post on social media platform X, said these teams will soon visit major countries of the world and garner global support for India’s anti-terrorism policy.

“One mission. One message. One Bharat. Seven All-Party Delegations will soon engage key nations under Operation Sindoor, reflecting our collective resolve against terrorism,” Mr Rijiju said on X.

Differences between the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had cropped up on Saturday after the ruling dispensation made a proposal to include Shashi Tharoor as one of the MPs to lead one of the multi-party delegations to globally expose Pak-sponsored terror.

Taking serious exception to the government’s proposal, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had dubbed the move as “dishonest” on the part of the government.

“Giving four names, announcing another is dishonest,” Mr Ramesh said on his X handle.

Of the four names that the Congress has proposed, only Anand Sharma was included in one of the delegations, while Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, and Raja Brar were not included.

Besides Shashi Tharoor, BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Baijayant Panda, Janata Dal (United)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s Supriya Sule, and Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Eknath Shinde will lead the remaining six delegations.

As per the government announcement, the delegation to visit the United States, Guyana, Panama, Brazil, and Colombia will be led by Congress’ Shashi Tharoor. It will include Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar K Lata (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena) and Former Indian Ambassador to the US,Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

The delegation to visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Algeria will be headed by BJP MP Baijayant Panda and will include Nishikant Dubey (BJP), Phangnon Konyak (BJP), Rekha Sharma (BJP), Asaduddin Owaisi (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Satnam Singh Sandhu, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Harsh Shringla.

The group to visit the UK, France, Germany, the EU, Italy, and Denmark will be led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad. It will include Daggubati Purandeswari (BJP), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena (UBT)), Ghulam Ali Khatana, Amar Singh (Congress), Samik Bhattacharya (BJP), M J Akbar, and Pankaj Saran.

The delegation to visit Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and  Singapore will be led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha and will include Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), Yusuf Pathan (Trinamool Congress), Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid and Mohan Kumar.

The group to visit the UAE, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone will be headed by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde. It will include Bansuri Swaraj (BJP), ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML), Atul Garg (BJP), Sasmit Patra (BJD), Manan Kumar Mishra (BJP), SS Ahluwalia, and Sujan Chinoy.

The group to visit Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia, and Russia will be led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi. It will include Rajeev Rai (Samajwadi Party), Mian Altaf Ahmad (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Brijesh Chowta (BJP), Prem Chand Gupta (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Ashok Kumar Mittal (Aam Aadmi Party), and Former envoys Manjeev S Puri and Jawed Ashraf.