Shashi Tharoor embarrasses Congress again: Is the man with 'options' ready to shift loyalties?

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor recently praised the Modi government's stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (File/PTI)

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's recent clarification — that his reference to the "options" he had in case the party did not require his services in no way implied he was ready to jump ship to the BJP —has failed to douse the speculations around his potential political future.

Known to speak his mind, Tharoor hasn't bothered much about veering off the official party line. His recent praise for the government's diplomacy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nonetheless, has revived speculation of him shifting loyalties.

The compelling silence of the Congress party (till the time of filing this report) two days since Tharoor's now-viral "egg-on-face" remark, when seen with the recent controversies that the MP's past statements have created, underlines his rebellious streak while laying bare just how uncomfortable this has left the party high command.

The only man to contest the elections for the post of Congress president against Rahul Gandhi, Tharoor, a diplomat-turned-politician who has held on to his Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat a record four times, has been in the spotlight over the past year -- be it for his statements in praise of PM Modi or his alleged disgruntlement with the Congress top brass and the state unit and his sidelining.

Rumours of Tharoor considering the option to join the Bharatiya Janata Party are not new. In September last year, Tharoor hit headlines in Kerala after an English daily claimed the possibility of an MP from southern India joining the BJP. The news report claimed last year that Tharoor held talks with the BJP's central leadership for a possible entry, a development that was swiftly denied by the former diplomat's team.

Earlier this year, Tharoor came under scrutiny after he said that he was loyal to the Congress and sought a larger role in party affairs. "Some in my own party oppose me, but I speak for India and Kerala’s future...If the party wants to utilize my strengths, I’ll be there. If not, I have other options," he had said, maintaining that he didn’t enter politics as a career and served in the United Nations before being invited by Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, to join electoral politics.

He had earlier praised the Prime Minister for getting in former diplomat S Jaishankar as the foreign minister and also lauded the start-up ecosystem and industry in Kerala, a state being ruled by the Left Democratic Front (LDF), which the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is looking to unseat.

A selfie with Union minister Piyush Goyal came as a surprise amid growing speculation around his political future, especially since Goyal had previously mocked Tharoor over his "foreign accent". He also praised PM Modi's meeting with US President Donald Trump at a time when Congress had taken a different view of the PM's US visit.

It is tough, therefore, to view Tharoor's remarks at the Raisina Dialogue last week, as an aberration or a one-off act of defiance. On one hand, experts believe that Tharoor's consistent forthrightness has cost him political capital. On the other, the state unit has made no bone about airing its discomfort with the leader either.

Seen as a misfit by his own party's Kerala unit and the high command seemingly unwilling to accommodate him in a role suitable to his stature on the national level, Tharoor seems to be running out of options in the Congress ever since the party lost power in 2014. A BJP membership, then, would appear a natural choice.

Yet, there are hurdles for Tharoor even if chooses to align with the BJP. Tharoor may command a national audience given his career as a diplomat, author and orator. Would the BJP, which has struggled to make inroads in Kerala despite its meteoric rise in the northern part of the country, choose to bank on a turncoat whose sphere of influence remains limited to his Lok Sabha constituency.

Tharoor has often hinted at a vacuum in the Congress' Kerala leadership, effectively pitching himself as the chief ministerial candidate. Would this be something that the BJP would be willing to offer him? And if it does, does the party stand to benefit by projecting a leader in the form of Tharoor in a state where its Hindutva agenda acts as the party's basis in its attempts to make inroads in the state?