Tharoor's raging ambitions not sitting well with Congress in Kerala

The Union government’s tactical decision to include Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor as a prominent member of its diplomatic outreach teams following Operation Sindoor has sparked unease within the Congress unit of Kerala unit as well. The move has raised questions about his standing within the party’s leadership and stirred debate over his growing distance from the Congress’s core organisational framework.

Also read | Growing rift? Tharoor not on the list Congress gave for delegation abroad

Even as Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan offered a tactful comment — “I am no one to comment on a CWC member. The high command will decide and we will follow” — the message from the state leadership was clear: Tharoor’s recent hobnobbing with the ruling dispensation is being viewed with caution, if not outright rejection.

Unregretful alienation

But beyond the personality clash or factional rivalry, Tharoor’s recent unregretful alienation within the party marks a significant moment in Kerala's Congress politics. It raises urgent questions about how the state unit perceives national relevance, generational transition, and its own future direction. His elevation to lead such a team constituted by the ruling dispensation isn’t merely symbolic — it holds deep implications for the power dynamics, strategy, and electoral calculus not only in Kerala but also in Delhi.

Unlike most senior Congress leaders in Kerala, Tharoor is not firmly aligned with any of the state’s dominant factions — be it the Sudhakaran-Muraleedharan bloc (though he had extended tacit support to Sudhakaran before his ouster as KPCC chief), the emerging Satheesan-led camp, or the now-diminished former group of veterans that was close to late Oommen Chandy.

Instead, he has carved out a solitary political path, focusing more on thematic areas such as parliamentary performance, foreign policy, and ideological discourse than on internal party maneuvering or organisational networking.

‘Not of the system’

Despite being part of the Congress for over 15 years, Tharoor is still viewed by many within the KPCC as someone ‘not partof the system’.

In Kerala unit of Congress, leadership is typically forged through years of grassroots activism — student politics, trade union struggles, and a slow climb through the party ranks. Tharoor’s political trajectory has stood apart. Despite winning three consecutive Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram — a cosmopolitan, urban constituency — he had never been entrusted with a major organisational role in the KPCC or tasked with managing state-level affairs by the AICC. His brand of politics, marked more by intellectual engagement and parliamentary performance than by factional networking, has long placed him on the periphery of the state's entrenched group dynamics.

Rising national stature

Yet nationally, his stature has risen steadily. In 2022, Tharoor surprised many within the party by contesting the Congress presidential election — the first leader in years to openly challenge the Rahul Gandhi-backed nominee. Though unsuccessful, the move eventually led to his induction into the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body.

Also read | Congress' harakiri over Centre picking Tharoor for delegations abroad

The unease this has triggered was amplified recently when Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inaugurating the Vizhinjam port — where Tharoor along with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shared the stage with him — used the moment to mock the Congress. “Shashi Tharoor along with the chief minister — two pillars of the INDIA bloc — are here. This will surely rob many of their sleep,” Modi said with a smirk. The comment was widely seen as a jab at Tharoor’s rising acceptability and the Congress’s internal contradictions.

The party’s response was swift. “When the country is facing serious challenges, our prime minister seems more focused on disrupting the Congress’s sleep,” said AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, a remark that attempted to brush off the jibe but also hinted at the discomfort the situation has created.

Gradual marginalisation

“Tharoor is a former UN under-secretary-general and a former Union minister. He will certainly remain a former member of parliament. If he attains any other position in the future — whether chief minister or something else, though the chances are slim — he will become a former chief minister as well. But he is a distinguished writer and has authored around 25 books. He will never be a ‘former’ writer or intellectual. That is what sets him apart, and he values this more than anything else. The question now is whether he will become a former Congress leader. Based on my limited acquaintance with him, I don’t believe that will happen. The Congress party is unlikely to give him that opportunity,” says NE Sudheer, a Kerala-based writer and political observer.

Tharoor’s gradual marginalisation within the Congress — both in Kerala and at the national level — has been unfolding in the public domain for some time now. He lacks the backing of the party high command and has yet to establish a meaningful grassroots presence in the state.

Cross-party gestures

His political conduct, often marked by civility toward adversaries, has drawn criticism from within party ranks. Whether it’s his cordial ties with the BJP-led Union government or his visible comfort sharing platforms with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Tharoor’s cross-party gestures have increasingly been viewed with suspicion by fellow Congress leaders. In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, the cross-border military action that the BJP sought to frame as a testament to its muscular nationalism, it has reached a flashpoint.

While the Congress firmly extended support to the armed forces and any action taken in defence of the nation, it also raised sharp and specific questions about the broader national security situation under the Modi government. However, Tharoor’s public statements that largely steered clear of such critique and instead appeared to echo the Centre’s narrative struck a tone that many in the party felt blurred the line between support for the military and endorsement of the BJP’s political messaging.

Will he quit Congress?

“I don’t think he would abandon the party or switch sides. Tharoor has consistently opposed Hindutva politics while asserting his Hindu identity — a position that doesn’t sit comfortably with either the BJP or the RSS. It wouldn’t be easy for them to accommodate him, just as it wouldn’t be easy for him to fully align with them. The worst-case scenario for the Congress, at this point, would be Tharoor quietly stepping back from active politics under the pretext of a writing sabbatical,” said a senior Congress leader who remains sympathetic to Tharoor despite his ambivalent positioning.

Also read | Tharoor on leading Operation Sindoor delegation: No politics, it's national service

To seasoned Congress observers in Kerala, this was yet another instance in a growing pattern. Tharoor’s reluctance to confront political opponents head-on — particularly the BJP at the Centre — is seen as part of his carefully curated image, but one that comes at the cost of organisational trust. The prevailing sense is that he is increasingly out of step with the party’s combative posture, especially as Congress attempts to present a sharper ideological alternative at both the national and state levels. If this drift continues, many believe Tharoor may find himself increasingly sidelined within Kerala Congress’s strategic calculations, let alone in contention for the party’s chief ministerial candidature in 2026.