'CPI is playing BJP's game in Thiruvananthapuram', Shashi Tharoor slams Communist Party of India

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday slammed the Communist Party of India (CPI), saying it is ironic that the Left party which complains about 's candidature in Wayanad is “playing the BJP's game" in Thiruvananthapuram.

Tharoor has represented for the past 15 years in the Lok Sabha. He is eyeing a record fourth term and will contest against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Electronics and Information Technology, and CPI's Pannian Raveendran.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Congress MP wrote, “It’s ironic that the same @cpofindia that complains about @RahulGandhi ’s candidature in Wayanad is playing the BJP’s game in Thiruvananthapuram."

“The only effect of the CPI’s campaign against me in Thiruvananthapuram is to divide the anti-BJP vote. And they preach alliance dharma in Wayanad!" Tharoor added.

Shashi Tharoor's remarks came after CPI general secretary D Raja last week said that fielding from Kerala's Wayanad is the Congress' prerogative but the public opinion is that a leader of his stature should have contested a seat where he could directly challenge the BJP whose ideology he is fighting. 

“The public opinion is that a leader of his stature should have contested against the BJP because we are fighting the BJP ideologically, politically, at national level and in the states. So, as a leader of this fight, he should have contested BJP directly. That is one opinion," the CPI leader told PTI. 

"...If he wanted to contest any seat from the southern part of India, he could have chosen a seat in or Telangana, wherever to fight BJP directly," Raja added. 

The Congress and the CPI are in alliance at the national level as part of the