Tharoor too met Gandhi and reportedly maintained that he could have expressed the Congress’ points of view if he was allowed to attend the seminar. “I respect her (Sonia Gandhi’s’) views on this matter and have conveyed to the organisers my inability to participate,” Tharoor later said in a statement.
After PCC chief K Sudhakaran publicly asked Tharoor, part of the change-seekers’ group, not to attend the CPM programme. Tharoor had said he would seek Gandhi’s permission. Gandhi is supposed to have taken the same position in the case of KV Thomas too, another Congress leader invited for the CPM seminar.
The Congress-CPM relation has hit a new low in Kerala amid the public agitation against the LDF regime’s proposed high-speed railway project. Among MPs who met Gandhi were K Suresh, K Muraleedharan, Benny Behanan and TN Prathapan.
