‘Never been an opportunist’: Tharoor tweets to end speculation he may join BJP

india

Updated: Mar 10, 2020 23:52 IST

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is not amused by reports that he may be the next to leave the party after Madhya Pradesh leader Jyotiraditya Scindia tendered his resignation on Tuesday.

It began with a tweet by user “Drunk Journalist” who gave the names of two Congress leaders who he said will soon jump ship.

“My next two bets who will be joining BJP soon 1) Milind Deora 2) Shashi Tharoor,” the user’s tweet said.

The lawmaker, who represents Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram in the Lok Sabha, hit back.

“If you were sober, @drunkjournalist, you wouldn’t have my name on your list,” was Tharoor’s reply.

Hours later, he issued another tweet to reject a news report on a Malayalam website on the same issue.

“Not amused by the silly speculation about my joining @BJP4India. I entered politics not as a careerist but to advance principles I have articulated for nearly four decades (sic),” Tharoor tweeted.

“Check my paper trail! My record speaks for itself. I’ve never been an opportunist&won’t start now (sic),” he said as he tweeted a screenshot of one such report.

Shashi Tharoor’s tweet also came after senior Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi posted his views on Twitter about Jyotiraditya Scindia leaving the party.

“Scindia’s departure is a big blow to the Congress. He was a central pillar in the party and the leadership should’ve done more to convince him to stay,” the Adampur MLA said in a tweet.

“Like him, there are many other devoted INC leaders across the country who feel alienated, wasted & discontented,” Bishnoi added.

The Madhya Pradesh government led by Kamal Nath was hit by another crisis on Tuesday after 22 MLAs of the Congress submitted their resignations to the assembly speaker.

The effective strength of the MP assembly will come down to 206 if the resignations are accepted and will leave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a slender majority beyond the halfway mark of 103 with its 107 MLAs.

The current effective strength of the MP assembly is 228, with two seats lying vacant.

The Congress has 114 MLAs and the BJP 107 legislators. The seven others are two legislators of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one from the Samajwadi Party (SP), and four independents.

These seven leaders support the Kamal Nath government, giving it a slim majority of six.