Shashi Tharoor is upset and uncertain. He does not want to leave the congress party but feels he is being forced to do it because a group led by K C Venugopal is creating conditions to force him out of the congress.
The fight is over the chief minister ship of Kerala with Venugopal keeping his focus on the Highchair in Kerala to the exclusion of everything else.
Ramesh Cheninthala is another serious candidate as he feels this is his last chance to be the chief minister. He is well liked in the party and the majority of the MLAs support him.
Also in the race are Shashi Tharoor, the main opposition leader Satishan, Karunakaran’s son Murlidharan.
Ramesh is very close to congress president Mallikarjun Kharge while Venugopal who has no serious base in the state draws his power from Rahul Gandhi.
A huge war has broken out in Kerala congress over the Chief Ministership and now it has found itself into the CWC thanks to Jairam Ramesh who is desperately trying to curry favour with K C Venugopal to force Shashi Tharoor out of the party.
In the CWC meeting Jairam Ramesh made a comment that some people have crossed the Laxman Rekha. He was referring to Shashi tharoor’s various statements some of which are being seen as support for the government and Narendra Modi.
No names were taken, and no discussion took place within the CWC on this issue. The leadership certainly did not pull up Shashi Tharoor on this matter.
During the briefing Jairam Ramesh made a comment in answer to a question that Tharoor is not the spokesman of the congress party and does not speak for the congress.
Later he debriefed the media and said that Tharoor was pulled up by the leadership and told not to speak in favour of the government as he had been doing. He was asked whether there would be disciplinary action against Tharoor for having crossed the Laxman Rekha to which he replied no and said nothing further would happen.
Which certainly smacks of contradiction. If the Laxman Rekha has been crossed there should be disciplinary action but who knows what he was talking about.
Shashi Tharoor is in a huge dilemma. He does not want to leave the congress and join the BJP, but he feels that he is being forced out of the congress by K C Venugopal.
The next day there were big screaming headlines and stories in Malayalam newspapers and channels about Tharoor in the dock and how he was pulled up by the leadership.
Tharoor had to offer a clarification that nothing like this happened in the CWC and that he was supporting the government on some issues the way that his leader and his party were supporting the government after the Pahalgam attack.
Jairam Ramesh is trying to save his job, said a senior Kerala journalist and he is doing everything he can to keep Venugopal happy.
Shashi Tharoor is in a huge dilemma. He does not want to leave the congress and join the BJP, but he feels that he is being forced out of the congress by K C Venugopal.
And Rahul Gandhi is so impressed by k c Venugopal that he does not see the woods for the trees.
He cannot see the damage that a k c Venugopal or a Jairam Ramesh are doing to the party.
Instead of protecting and safeguarding an asset like Shashi Tharoor who is both erudite and an expert on international affairs Rahul Gandhi lives in his own world happy with whatever is going on.
And in the meantime, the BJP would do everything it can to get their hands on Tharoor!!
Renu Mittal
Renu Mittal is a veteran Journalist of India. She has been reporting on the Congress Party affairs since 1983.
