Tharoor dismisses ‘fanciful accounts’ of meeting with Kharge and Rahul Gandhi

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday dismissed media reports about his recent meeting with the party’s top leadership as speculative, while asserting that accounts circulating in the public domain bore little resemblance to what was actually discussed, even as the interaction itself was seen as an attempt to address perceptions of strain between him and the Congress high command.

The clarification came a day after Tharoor met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi at Kharge’s office in the Parliament complex, with the meeting drawing attention because it followed weeks of reports suggesting differences between the Thiruvananthapuram MP and senior party leaders.

Tharoor, responding to what he described as exaggerated and imaginative reporting, maintained that only three people were present during the discussion and that none of them had briefed the media in the manner suggested by several reports, while adding that any details beyond his public statements amounted to conjecture rather than verified information.

The meeting itself was held against the backdrop of growing speculation about Tharoor’s relationship with the party leadership, speculation that had intensified after he was absent from several key meetings chaired by senior Congress leaders, a development that was widely interpreted as a sign of discontent.

Following the interaction on Thursday, Tharoor publicly conveyed that the discussion had been cordial and constructive and that there was broad agreement among those present on the way forward, an assertion that appeared aimed at countering narratives of internal discord within the party.

Reports of unease had earlier gathered momentum amid claims that Tharoor felt marginalised within the organisation, with some accounts suggesting that he was dissatisfied over not being adequately acknowledged by Rahul Gandhi at a recent event in Kochi, while others pointed to alleged efforts by sections of the Kerala Congress leadership to sideline him in state-level affairs.

The Congress leadership has not officially commented on the substance of the meeting, though the decision to hold it has been viewed as an effort to signal unity at a time when the party is seeking to consolidate its internal cohesion, particularly as it navigates its role as the principal opposition in Parliament.