Tharoor ‘guest artiste’ in Cong: KPCC chief

TVM MP must understand that he has to work within boundaries: Kodikunnil

A section of top Congress leaders in Kerala have started targeting Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor ever since he, along with 22 prominent Congress leaders, wrote a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, seeking ground-breaking changes in the organisation and style of the leadership of the party.

KPCC working president, Kodikunnil Suresh, MP and the party’s chief whip in Lok Sabha, said Tharoor was like a ‘guest artiste’ in the Congress. “He is definitely not a politician. Tharoor is yet to understand that he has to work within the boundaries of Congress organisation. At times he does things in haste,” said Suresh.

Suresh, who represents Mavellikkara constituency in the Lok Sabha, said everyone in the party should function in line with the organisational policies and programmes. “Tharoor may be a global citizen but he should not take any decision or say anything according to his will. He should comply with the party’s policies and programmes,” he said, while replying to questions from reporters on the sidelines of social reformer Ayyankali’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.

Tharoor on Thursday had sought to steer clear of any controversy related to the letter issue saying that matter should be put to rest. ‘I’ve been silent for four days on recent events in @INCIndia because once the Congress president says the issue is behind us, it is the duty of all of us to work together constructively in the interests of the party,’ Tharoor tweeted on Thursday. ‘I urge all my colleagues to uphold this principle and end the debate,’ he added in the tweet.

Earlier, former Kerala chief minister, K. Karunakaran’s, son and Vadakara MP K. Muraleedharan, mocked Tharoor saying only the high command can talk against an MP if there is any act of indiscipline on his part.