Thiruvananthapuram: Up until recently, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor was considered to have an estranged relationship with the party. The leader often made headlines for praising the party’s opponents and distancing himself from Congress events, at times even hinting at a breaking point in their relationship. But that now appears to be in the past. The leader seems to be cozying up to the party, amplifying its stand, and was one of the most sought-after star campaigners in the Kerala assembly polls.
The change was also visible in Parliament Friday. In a speech that lasted about 14 minutes, the Congress MP criticised the BJP-led Centre on the Bills related to women’s reservation and delimitation, saying that the latter could turn into a “political demonetisation” if women’s reservation is linked to it.
“Delimitation is not a mere bureaucratic rearrangement of maps. It is a profound and intentional shift in political power. Linking women’s reservation to it effectively holds the aspirations of Indian women hostage to one of the most contentious political exercises in our history. Such an exercise carries risks that could strain the very fabric of our federalism,” Tharoor said.
The development comes soon after the Thiruvananthapuram MP met LoP Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi late January, days after skipping a party high command meeting in Kerala ahead of the polls.
Soon after this, the Thiruvananthapuram MP, who grabbed headlines last year for praising the Narendra Modi government on several issues, was seen aligning with party lines. He called the Union Budget presented in February an “underwhelming, squandered opportunity” and said it was more about “headline management than governance”, alleging neglect of issues such as unemployment and agriculture. The speech also critiqued the Centre for neglecting Kerala in areas such as railway expansion and AIIMS.
Tharoor was the most sought-after star campaigner of the UDF in the Kerala Assembly polls, covering nearly 59 constituencies across 12 districts, sometimes visiting five constituencies in a single day.
A Congress source told ThePrint that Tharoor had been feeling ‘sidelined’ in the party, which got resolved in his meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge.
He said Shashi Tharoor might be accommodated in the UDF government, if it comes to power, utilising his knowledge and expertise. The polls for the 140-member Kerala assembly were held on 9 April. The Congress has been expressing confidence about returning to power, banking on “anti-incumbency sentiment” against the LDF government.
“Now, he is saying V. D. Satheesan is also respecting his opinion and has assured Tharoor that if the UDF forms a government, he would be given an advisory or key role. He is happy now. He is doing 100 percent. He is very confident and reaching wherever he can,” the source said.
ThePrint reached out to Tharoor for comment, but didn’t receive a response.
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Congress via UN
Born to Malayali parents in London, Tharoor completed his education in India and the US and worked at the United Nations from 1978 to 2007. In 2009, he joined the Indian National Congress and contested the Lok Sabha elections that year, winning the Thiruvananthapuram constituency by a margin of almost 1 lakh votes. He retained the seat in subsequent elections, though his margin reduced to 16,077 in the 2024 general elections, where he was challenged by BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
In the second UPA government, the Congress leader was appointed Minister of State for External Affairs (2009–2010) and later Minister of State for Human Resource Development (2012–14).
In 2020, Tharoor was one among 23 senior leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi calling for “full-time visible leadership” and internal reforms in the Congress. In 2022, he contested the Congress presidential election against Mallikarjun Kharge, who secured 84.1 per cent of the votes.
After this, the relationship between the leader and the party gradually weakened, with Tharoor occasionally taking divergent political positions. For example, in an interview to news agency PTI in April 2023, he welcomed opposition unity against the BJP but said he would not “crow over the leadership” if he was in the Congress leadership. In the same interview, he said he would have advised senior leader Digvijaya Singh against saying the latter was “happy” about Germany taking note of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, adding that India’s internal politics should not be seen as validated by foreign governments.
This relationship showed further strain in 2025, after Tharoor began praising the BJP government and Narendra Modi on several occasions, something the party leadership stayed away from including on Operation Sindoor. He also had a run-in with the Congress Kerala leadership when he wrote an article praising the LDF government for improvements in the startup ecosystem and ease of doing business. The article created a stir in the state, and Kerala Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan publicly questioned it, alleging that the figures cited by Tharoor were inflated.
In June 2025, during the Nilambur bypolls in Kerala, Tharoor was the only MP absent from the campaign, which otherwise saw participation from most senior Congress leaders including Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi. Soon after the polls, Tharoor told the media he wasn’t “invited” for the campaign and had “some differences of opinion with the party”, which he preferred to discuss internally.
In November, he wrote an article in Project Syndicate, also published in Malayalam in a local daily, arguing that the dominance of the Nehru-Gandhi family in the Indian National Congress has reinforced the idea that political leadership in India often functions as a “birthright”. Though he cited examples from parties such as DMK, BJD under Naveen Patnaik, and the Thackeray family, he left out the BJP, raising eyebrows. The Congress leadership in Kerala maintained that such issues should be handled in Delhi, as Tharoor is a CWC member, and avoided public remarks against him.
This led to speculation that Tharoor was considering a shift to the BJP ahead of the Kerala Assembly polls. A state BJP functionary had then told ThePrint that discussions regarding this were dealt with in Delhi and that the party was open to the idea of inducting any popular figure in the state. He added that there was also discussion in the state about fielding Tharoor from Nemom (from where BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar eventually contested) if he had shifted.
In December, he was absent from the party’s campaign for the local body polls, while the party maintained that his absence would not affect its campaign. Soon after, the UDF won, and Tharoor congratulated the party, also “acknowledging” the BJP’s win in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, which falls under his constituency.
However, things shifted again in January, when Tharoor attended the party’s two-day brainstorming camp for the Assembly polls in Wayanad. Videos of him laughing with V. D. Satheesan and K. C. Venugopal went viral, and the leader also denied deviating from party lines, saying his statements had been taken out of context. He maintained that he had always followed the party line in Parliament.
But this was short-lived, as Tharoor skipped a key high command meeting in the state, reportedly upset over Rahul Gandhi not acknowledging his presence at an event in Kochi. The leaders, along with Kharge, met in Delhi a week later 29 January, and Tharoor described it as a “very good, positive and constructive” discussion, saying all was well.
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Star campaigner
The changes were visible soon.
Shashi Tharoor, who was criticised for limited presence in his constituency and during local body polls in December, held a press conference on 17 April in Thiruvananthapuram, where he assessed the party’s chances in the upcoming polls. He expressed confidence, saying the UDF had momentum and there was strong anti-incumbency against the LDF government. In the meeting he also didn’t forget to mention that he campaigned for 59 constituencies.
“We had a complaint that the Election Commission didn’t give us enough time. I couldn’t reach many constituencies even though many candidates requested it. But I still got the chance to assess the mood of the state’s people. What I observed is that people are with us. The momentum is with us. We will go forward. On 9 April, people will elect the UDF government. We have to wait till 4 May for that. But I believe we will see a UDF government,” Tharoor said.
He also said the UDF would bring positive change and urged those considering voting for the BJP to reconsider.
“Another thing I noticed is the unity of the United Democratic Front. During candidate discussions, some had complaints, but everyone set that aside and campaigned with sincerity. Even the bypassed candidates campaigned for others. The UDF didn’t have any rebel candidates.”
He said his article praising the LDF government was premature. He alleged that the government had exaggerated figures, which Satheesan convinced him of, and he withdrew the article within a month. He said the report he used was based on state-provided data.
“You know this, whoever does good things, I am ready to recognise it. I don’t see politics everywhere. Because at the end of the day, politics is for people’s good. But in this particular case, I realised that the recognition I gave them was premature. So I withdrew it,” Tharoor said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Tharoor slams Modi govt over delimitation in LS—’we risk creating a tyranny of demographic majority’