'They stand united': Rahul Gandhi on Kerala leaders amid Shashi Tharoor row

Rahul Gandhi's remarks come amid reports of tensions in the Congress' Kerala unit, with senior leader Shashi Tharoor taking a different stance from the party on multiple issues

Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asserted that the party's Kerala unit is "united" and its leaders "stand as one." His remarks come amid reports of tensions in the Congress' Kerala unit, with senior leader Shashi Tharoor taking a different stance from the party on multiple issues.

 

In a Facebook post, Rahul Gandhi posted a picture from the media byte by Kerala leaders after their meeting with Congress top brass on Friday. "They stand as one, united by the light of purpose ahead," Gandhi said in the post.

 

What happened at Congress meeting?

 

Top Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, met Kerala leaders at 'Indira Bhawan' a brainstorming session on Friday to discuss the strategy and the way forward ahead of next year's assembly elections. The theme of the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, was unity and strengthening of the state organisation.

 

 

Without naming anyone, Rahul Gandhi said leaders should be very careful about the political strategy and should not do or say anything that does not toe the party line, according to news agency PTI. Notably, Tharoor was also part of the meeting.

 

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge laid stress on discipline, ensuring unity and filling up the vacant posts to strengthen the party's Kerala unit.

 

What did Shashi Tharoor say?

 

Tharoor, a former Union minister and a four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram, sparked a row after he praised Kerala's entrepreneurial growth under the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in an article.

 

Besides this, Tharoor also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his negotiations with US President Donald Trump during an official visit to the US. "I think that's a very good outcome because otherwise, the fear was there might be some hasty decisions made in Washington which would have affected our exports,” Tharoor had said.

 

His remarks were not well received by the Congress and its United Democratic Front (UDF) partners, who questioned the basis of his claims. Veekshanam Daily, Congress party's mouthpiece in Kerala, also published an editorial criticising Tharoor without naming him.

 

Tharoor, on the other hand, defended his remarks while further fuelling the rift by projecting himself for leadership option in Kerala. In an interview with The Indian Express, Tharoor pointed at the "absence of a leader and said he was ahead of others in Congress' leadership stakes in Kerala.