'Baseless, irresponsible': Shashi Tharoor slams media for misinterpreting 'exploring other options' remark

Thiruvananthapuram: Ahead of the meeting of Congress national leadership with the party leaders from Kerala, party MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said that his recent interview to the media was published in a 'misleading and baseless' manner.

In a series of posts on X on Thursday, Tharoor said that his podcast interview to a media was published in a misleading and baseless manner giving impressions that he was exploring other political options, though what he meant was 'literary pursuit'. Tharoor also said that he was misquoted as saying that the Congress workers were feeling that there was an absence of a leader for the party in Kerala.

Though Congress leaders maintained that the meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday is to discuss the party's strategies for the local body and assembly election that are due this year and next year, respectively, the row over Tharoor's remarks could very well reflect in the meeting.

Being a person with high profile and a crowd puller, there are every chances that Tharoor could be given more prominence in the party's activities in the state, especially since the coming assembly polls are very crucial for the Congress in retaining the party's prominence even at the national level.

Tharoor already got a shot in the arm with key coalition partner Indian Union Muslim League openly calling him a crowd puller.

At a meeting of the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kochi on Thursday, leaders of some coalition partners were learnt to have conveyed their concerns that the lack of unity in the Congress could affect the poll prospects of the UDF.

Meanwhile, veteran Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien criticised Tharoor by stating that the Congress gave him more than what he deserved.

In an article in an English daily, Kurien said that Congress workers who struggled for the nation's freedom did not seek anything in return. If Tharoor was feeling that he deserved more owing to English knowledge and contributions as an author, there are many Congress leaders like K Kamaraj who became a great chief minister without any formal education. Kurien also said that Tharoor won the last election not on the strength of his personal ties, but with votes of minorities and fisherfolks who are traditional voters of Congress.