Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday skipped a high-level party meeting at former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence, citing prior travel commitments as he was returning from Dubai, ahead of the Budget session of Parliament.
This was the second senior Congress meeting Tharoor has missed in the past four days. He was also absent from a recent meeting held to discuss the party’s strategy for the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections. Tharoor is the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram, a seat he has held since 2009.
Responding to reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, Tharoor declined to comment on media reports suggesting speculative political leanings towards the CPM, and said his absence from the meeting was being misinterpreted. He said he intended to raise any issues directly with the Congress leadership during the Parliament session, which begins on Wednesday.
“Whatever issues I have to raise, I will convey them directly to the party leadership. There is no doubt that I will get that opportunity, especially since everyone will be together during the Parliament session,” Tharoor said.
Rejecting suggestions that he had deliberately skipped the meeting, Tharoor said the invitation had come too late for him to alter his travel plans. “I was only invited to the strategic meeting a day or two ago. By that time, I had already booked my flight to return from Dubai,” he said, adding that he was scheduled to arrive in Delhi late Tuesday evening.
Sources in the Congress said Tharoor had informed the party in advance about his inability to attend the meeting due to his travel schedule.
The meeting was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and senior leaders including P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari and Manish Tiwari.
Tharoor also referred to reports claiming that he had held discussions with individuals associated with the CPM during his visit to Dubai, but declined to comment further. The CPM dismissed suggestions of any such discussions as speculative, while the Congress said Tharoor remains a senior leader and that any internal issues would be resolved, rejecting reports that he was considering leaving the party.
The Budget session of Parliament will begin on January 28. The first phase will run until February 13, while the second phase will be held from March 9 to April 2.
