After the BJP won the Thiruvananthapuram corporation polls. In a post on X, Tharoor said: “I also want to acknowledge the historic performance of the BJP in Thiruvananthapuram, and offer humble congratulations on their significant victory in the city Corporation.”
Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.
The strains between senior Congress leader, former minister and MP from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) Shashi Tharoor with his party’s leadership have deepened in recent months with a growing belief that Tharoor’s statements on several policy issues and internal matters of the party are hurting the Congress.
After the BJP won the Thiruvananthapuram corporation polls. In a post on X, Tharoor said: “I also want to acknowledge the historic performance of the BJP in Thiruvananthapuram, and offer humble congratulations on their significant victory in the city Corporation…The people’s verdict must be respected, whether for the UDF overall or for the BJP in my constituency.”
Out of a total of 101 wards in Thiruvananthapuram, the BJP won 50, falling short of a majority by one. Overall, the Congress-led UDF secured a win in the state’s local body elections.
On December 15, Tharoor praised a tweet on X by a handle CivitasSameer which was critical of the current functioning of the Indian National Congress (INC). Tharoor said: “Thank you this thoughtful analysis (sic). There has always been more than one tendency in the party; your framing is fair, and reflective of a certain perception of the current reality.” The long thread by CivitasSameer said: “Tharoor broadly aligns with a 90s era Congress tendency that was urban-facing, institutionally-oriented, and reform-compatible. This orientation emerged during economic transition and elite-led governance, not as virtue, but as a historical circumstance.”
The post highlighted the point that former PM late Dr. Manmohan Singh and former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia operated within this framework. It also called the INC’s re-orientation in 2010 under Rahul Gandhi as “a reactive, yet devastating shift that can be shown through the electoral results themselves.” An important point made in the post was that the individual bringing about this shift is himself from an elite background.
Other developments which widened the rift between Tharoor and the Congress
Apart from several of the articulate leader’s statements which have gone against the party line, several other developments have increased the rift between Tharoor and the party leadership. First, Tharoor was part of an all-party delegation, in May-June 2025, which visited several countries to brief them about Operation Sindoor — the military response to the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack. Second, he was invited to a dinner hosted for Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, while Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi were not invited. Tharoor, in a social media post while describing the atmosphere during the dinner as “warm,” said he was invited in his “capacity as the chair of the foreign affairs committee of parliament.” In an increasingly polarised atmosphere, Tharoor’s stance on certain issues is bound to make his party uncomfortable. One of the dilemmas for individuals who like Tharoor are socially liberal but economically more towards the Centre is that while they may differ from the INC on economic and strategic issues, they have limited political choices as far as national politics in concerned. Their stance on several issues would make them misfits in the BJP – though many Congress leaders and leaders from other ‘secular parties’ have seamlessly shifted to the BJP in recent years.
As an umbrella party, the Congress should have enough space for differing views as has been the case in the past, while having an uncompromising stance on issues pertaining to pluralism, inclusivity, and social welfare. It is unfair to refer to anyone with differing views as being part of a “sleeper cell” of the BJP. While focusing on rural India, social justice and welfare, the INC need not be anti-rich and dismissive of the middle class. The middle class has benefitted the most from the economic policies of the INC. The tweet regarding the sudden shift in Congress policies post 2010 is important in this context. It is not just the economic policies of the 1991, which laid the foundations for India’s economic policies, but late Dr Manmohan Singh as the architect of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear agreement also gave a decisive push to India’s ties with the US. Such achievements of the INC need to be communicated more to young voters.
Conclusion
In conclusion, sections of the Congress and some of its supporters need to be more nuanced and not accuse individuals with differing views within the party as well as opposition leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi and Mamata Banerjee of being the B team of the BJP. Also, if the INC wants to improve its performance in 2029, it needs to also cater to the ‘Gen Z’ in urban areas. In this context, urbane faces within the party or sympathisers who believe that the party cannot afford to ignore the urban middle class should not be shunned away but utilised.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own and do not reflect those of DNA
(The author is a policy analyst and faculty member at the Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat)
