Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress high command has rejected the offer made by MP to lead the party as a CM candidate in the Kerala Assembly elections due in 2026. The offer was made in a controversial podcast to a newspaper in Delhi.
According to senior leaders here, the high command has said that the party will go to the polls in Kerala without naming anyone as a CM face. That has been the Congress tradition, and a leader would be decided by the elected MLAs after the results come out, a leader said.
The high command has also told senior party leaders in Kerala not to stoke the Tharoor fire anymore and remain silent even if Tharoor makes any provocative statement. In line with this directive, senior leaders told the media that they would offer no comments from now on.
“We have decided not to respond to Tharoor’s statements,” CWC member Ramesh Chennithala told the media. “Local body elections are round the corner. We are here to work for the unity of the party. We have to win the election,” he said.
KPCC chief K Sudhakaran reportedly had a word with the four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram Monday asking him to refrain from airing his views on the party in public.
“If Tharoor wants to leave the Congress, let him do so,” a senior UDF leader was quoted in the media. “He has become ambitious and opportunistic. I think if he leaves the party it will be good for both the Congress and the UDF. There was a time when we thought that he could become a consensus candidate for chief minister if the power struggle between some leaders in the party continued unabated. At this point, we cannot even think about it,” he added.
