'If the party wants me I will be there, else i have other things to do': Shashi Tharoor's message to Congress

Veteran Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said that "if the party does not want him, he has other things to do', as reports of his conflict with the party emerged after he showered praises on PM Modi and Kerala's Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's industrial policy.

“If the party wants me then I will be there for the party. If not, I have my own things to do. You should not think I have no option to spend time. I have options,” said the Thiruvananthapuram MP during a podcast with one of India's leading newspapers.

Tharoor, in his article in an English daily, had praised the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government’s handling of Kerala’s economy, which sparked criticism from fellow Congress leaders in the state.

“I have my books, speeches, invitations from across the world for talks,” he added during the newspaper's Malayam podcast.

However, Tharoor refrained from commenting on his relationship with senior Congress leaders.

“No comments at all,” said the Congress MP.

The speculations around Tharoor's rift with Congress began after he shared a cryptic post on his X handle on Feb 22, which read, “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise” by poet Thomas Gray."

Meanwhile, Tharoor also stated that there is an absence of Congress leadership in Kerala where the assembly elections are set to take place in 2026.

Taking a jibe at the faceoff between Tharoor and Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) IT Cell head Amit Malviya called him getting sidelined in the party as 'inevitable'.

"Shashi Tharoor’s marginalization in the Congress was inevitable after he dared to contest the party’s presidential election against Mallikarjun Kharge, a nominee of the Gandhi family," Malviya said in a post on X.

"His downsizing would have been swifter and more conspicuous if not for his high public profile. The Congress, after all, is nothing but a proprietorship firm of the Gandhis," he added.