Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is currently on a four-day tour of Malabar, which has drawn a sizable crowd and attention in north Kerala. On Tuesday, Opposition leader V D Satheesan said the party has room for everyone but will not tolerate any attempts to resurrect factionalism in the state unit.
However, Tharoor said he has never been part of any factional politics in the state and his only attempt was to strengthen the party and reiterated that nobody will have to worry about his Malabar tour.
Party leaders’ uneasiness over his trip grew manifold after member of Parliament (MP) from Kozhikode, M K Raghavan said openly that “Tharoor alone can take the Congress back to winning ways in the state”. Another senior leader K Muraleedharan also said “people who eye the CM’s post were behind creating confusion over his trip.”
Satheesan said the Congress has space for everyone but the party will not tolerate factionalism anymore. “After two consecutive defeats we are building up the party by taking everyone along. It doesn’t have strength to face divisive politics now. If anyone attempts to break this, we will not tolerate it,” he said in the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
He reaffirmed K Sudhakaran, the state president of the Congress, who had previously stated that any leader could attend events after consulting with the appropriate party units. He claimed that some media outlets were giving the impression that the party was a divided one and that leaders were being pitted against one another.
Satheesan said the party had organised many strikes and movements in the state capital recently but the local MP (Tharoor) was missing in all these programmes. “Some people and a section of media balloon certain leaders but they will burst at a slightest prick. We are not those balloons,” he said.
The Congress state president has urged party leaders not to issue public statements and cause any misunderstanding as a result of Tharoor’s trip, which has already caused enough commotion.
“The Congress always ensured internal democracy. Tharoor is free to attend the party events after talking to respective DCCs (district Congress committees),” said Sudhakaran.
The leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, received a visit from Tharoor on Tuesday in Malappuram. He also went to the Malappuram district office of the Congress.
“He (Tharoor) is a tall leader. If he plays an active role in state politics it is always good for the UDF (United Democratic Front),” said Thangal.
The League has consistently supported Tharoor playing a bigger role, but it has always acted cautiously enough given the delicate power dynamics in the Congress. Similar to Kozhikode, many district Congress officials in Malappuram skipped Tharoor’s event. In Kannur, the congressional district of the Congress state chief, Tharoor will speak at a seminar on Wednesday.
Tharoor declared after meeting with Muslim League leaders that he was not interested in starting a group in the state and advised people not to make too much of his trip to Malabar.
“There is no need of an A, B, I or O group in the Congress. If there is a need for a letter like earlier, it should be “U,” a united Congress is the need of the hour,” he said.