Oppn leader asked me to organise meetings across Kerala: Tharoor

Pathanamthitta: Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said Opposition Leader VD Satheesan asked him three times to go all over Kerala and give speeches. 

He said he has always stood against groups in the party and never created any sectarianism.

“It was the leader of the opposition who asked to organise the programme across Kerala. V D Satheesan told me this three times. I don’t know how the programmes I participate in are causing controversy,” he said here on Sunday.

“All schedules have been communicated to the DCC presidents. We have the dates on which party office bearers were intimated. I am willing to answer all complaints. But no one has complained about my work for the past 14 years,” he added.

Referring to the two prominent groups in the state Congress, Tharoor said the party needed to be united and there was no need for ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups in the Congress of Kerala.

Tharoor has drawn flak from several sections of senior Congress leaders that he had to intimate the respective DCC presidents on his visit to those districts. 

Kottayam DCC president Nattakam Suresh had said earlier that he did not know of Tharoor’s visit.

But K Muraleedharan, who has sprung to support Tharoor, criticised Suresh for his public statement against Tharoor. Muraleedharan said that whatever a DCC president had to say, he should tell it within the party. Suresh retorted by stating that the same principle was applicable to Vadakara MP as well.

Meanwhile, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) said that it was unfortunate to have such a widespread controversy over Tharoor’s visit to various districts of the state.