Shashi Tharoor skips second Congress meet within a week of Rahul Gandhi's Kochi 'snub'

COngress leader Shashi Tharoor skipped another company encounter on tues, adding fire to venture about his unhappiness with the leadership. This comes just days after the Thiruvananthapuram MP skipped a Kerala strategy meeting in Delhi, citing his priority engagement at the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF).This time, he was not there for a meeting of the party's parliamentary strategy group ahead of the upcoming budget session of the parliament.Sources quoted in a PTI news agency report said that Shashi Tharoor could not attend the meeting as he was on his way back from Dubai, where he had travelled for a literature festival. He had informed the party in advance about his inability to be present, the report added.The meeting was held at the residence of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, where the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, were also present.The Shashi Tharoor-Congress ‘rift’After he skipped a high-level Kerala poll strategy meeting in New Delhi last week, Shashi Tharoor said he never violated the party’s stated positions in Parliament, and that his only public disagreement in principle was over Operation Sindoor.While the Congress leadership maintained that Tharoor’s absence in the previous meeting was due to prior commitments at the Kerala Literature Festival, PTI quoted sources as saying that the four-time MP felt “deeply insulted” by a perceived snub by party leader Rahul Gandhi at a recent event in Kochi.During that event on January 19, Rahul Gandhi reportedly acknowledged 12 senior leaders by name but not Tharoor, even though the MP was sitting in the same row on the dais. Sources close to Tharoor were quoted by multiple news agencies as saying that he felt “sidelined” despite being one of the three Congress Working Committee (CWC) members from the state.Friction again after the thawThe internal friction persists as Kerala prepares for a potential triangular battle in the assembly polls expected by May 2026. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is aiming to unseat the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), which has held power for a decade. The BJP is also confident of its chances.This is not the first time he has skipped a major party meeting; there have been at least three similar instances over the past few months. Apparently, there was a thaw when he spoke for the party in the Lok Sabha during the Vande Mataram discussion in December. But state-level differences and ongoing friction appear to have taken precedence for now.