Senior Congress leader K. Muraleedharan on Sunday hit out at party colleague Shashi Tharoor again, saying that he would not be invited to any party programme in the state capital till he changes his stance on the national security issue.
Muraleedharan also declared that Tharoor—a fellow Congress Working Committee (CWC) member—was no longer considered "one of us", adding that the party's national leadership would decide what action was required against the Congress MP.
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"Till he (Tharoor) changes his stance, we will not invite him to any party programme held in Thiruvananthapuram. He is not with us, so there is no question of him boycotting an event," Muraleedharan said.
He was replying to reporters' queries seeking his view on Tharoor sticking to his stand on the issue of national security.
Muraleedharan's response also comes a day after Tharoor had said that the nation comes first and parties were the means of making the country better.
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Tharoor had also said that a lot of people had been very critical of him because of his stand supporting the armed forces and the central government, in connection with what happened recently in the country and its borders.
"I will stand my ground, because I believe this is the right thing for the country," he had said at an event in Kochi on Saturday.
Tharoor had also said that when people like him called for cooperation with other parties in the interests of national security, their own parties felt that it was disloyal, which spirals into a big problem.
Muraleedharan had earlier hit out at Tharoor over the sharing of a survey suggesting he was UDF's most preferred choice for Chief Minister, saying "he should first decide which party he belongs to".
Muraleedharan's swipe at the Thiruvananthapuram MP comes amid a widening rift between Tharoor and the party's central leadership over his reactions following the Pahalgam terror attack, which have drawn sharp criticism within the Congress, with some of his comments seen as putting the party on the defensive.
The senior Congress leader had also attacked Tharoor following his article criticising Indira Gandhi over the Emergency, which appeared in a Malayalam daily.
At the time, Muraleedharan had urged the CWC member to choose a clear political path if he felt constrained within the Congress.