Thiruvananthapuram: Thiruvananthapuram MP Tharoor, who was made the co-chair of Congress’s 2026 Kerala election campaign committee Thursday night, was unlikely to attend the committee’s first 16 February meeting at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.
Tharoor might not be present at the meeting due to an injury in his leg, the 10-member election panel’s chair, Ramesh Chennithala, told reporters Friday, a day after the All India Congress Committee (AICC) issued a statement appointing Tharoor as the election panel’s co-chair.
After months of uncertainty over his strained relations with the party’s senior leaders, Tharoor’s appointment had come only weeks after he met Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi.
Speaking to reporters Friday in Alappuzha, senior Congress leader and former Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Kerala legislative assembly, Chennithala, thanked the party high command for appointing him as the chair of the election committee before he declared the first meeting of the body on 16 February.
“I don’t know if Shashi Tharoor might be able to attend the meeting, in person, due to an injury in his leg. I talked to him. The rest of the members will attend,” Chennithala said, adding that the party and the Congress-led Opposition alliance, United Democratic Front, would take a chance at a coordinated campaign for the change of rule in the state.
According to the Tharoor X handle, the MP is in the US to participate in several events, including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, over the weekend.
When contacted by ThePrint, the MP’s office in Thiruvananthapuram said that they were yet to finalise Tharoor’s programmes for the assembly campaign or his next visit to the state capital.
Apart from Chennithala and Tharoor, the committee includes Vadakara MP Shafi Parambil, the convener, and members Hibi Eden, Roji M. John, C.R. Mahesh, Mathew Kuzhalnadan, Ramya Haridas, M. Liju, and Deepthi Mary Varghese.
Similarly, the manifesto committee is chaired by Benny Behanan, with Kodikunnil Suresh, Dean Kuriakose, and Jebi Mather as its members.
Chennithala said the Congress-led UDF’s preparations for the assembly polls had been launched early, citing the ongoing Puthuyuga Yatra led by Kerala Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan.
“We aim to bring a coordinated campaign of the UDF and Congress to the people. People want a change in government; it was proven in the local body, parliamentary, and assembly bypolls,” he said.
Tharoor has been in the spotlight since last year after the Thiruvananthapuram MP made several open remarks supporting the Narendra Modi-led government and its policies, marking a visible deviation from the Congress party’s official stance.
Tharoor was a member of the 17-member core committee formed by the Congress to oversee the local body polls conducted in December in Kerala. However, the leader was active on the ground for the campaign for just a few days.
However, after attending the party’s leadership camp in Wayanad in early January, Tharoor denied any tensions, asserting that his stand was the same as the Congress on basic subjects and that his independent articles had been taken out of context, leading to controversy.
However, the issue resurfaced again after the leader skipped a key party meeting in Delhi in late January. Soon after, a separate meeting for Tharoor with Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took place in Delhi, after which Tharoor said the discussion was ‘constructive’ and ‘positive’ and that the leaders are moving on the ‘same page.’
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)