New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday skipped the meeting of Congress lawmakers chaired by Rahul Gandhi.
His absence at the meeting comes amid growing displeasure in the party over his ‘praise’ for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Tharoor was not present for the third time in a row at the meeting of the grand old party’s 99 MPs, NDTV reported.
The meeting was held for reviewing the performance of lawmakers alongside devising strategies to take on the BJP before Parliament's winter session closes next week, on December 19.
However, Tharoor was reported to be engaged in some private events including the wedding of his aide John Koshy in Kolkata and the birthday of his sister, Smita Tharoor according to NDTV.
Tharoor reportedly skipped two previous meetings held in November, suggesting his growing alienation from the party.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP did not attend a meeting was chaired by Sonia Gandhi on November 30; later he told media that ‘I did not skip it; I was on a plane coming from Kerala’.
His office later confirmed that Tharoor along with his mother was on a rescheduled flight to Delhi at the time of meeting making it inconvenient for him to attend it.
Senior leader KC Venugopal was not present at the meeting.
Tharoor had also missed the party’s meeting on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue earlier, citing ill health.
However, the congress leader attended a meeting where Prime Minister Modi spoke and later the Congress MP in a post on X praised the speech triggering a row.
Congress leaders Supriya Shrinate and Sandeep Dikshit questioned Tharoor’s comments over the PM Modi’s speech and went to the extent of suggesting Tharoor leave the Congress to join the BJP.
However, Tharoor reportedly called for displaying a ‘willingness to cooperate across ideologies’ in order to serve the people.