Sonia Gandhi bars Tharoor from attending CPI-M meeting

New Delhi, March 21:  Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday asked senior party leader Shashi Tharoor to refrain from attending a CPI-M seminar to be held in April, directing him to listen to the Kerala leadership.

The development came after he joined a meeting of Congress "rebels", apparently ditching the Congress's Kerala unit by planning to attend the Left's seminar.

As per sources, Congress leaders from Kerala met Sonia Gandhi at the party's parliamentary office in Delhi to intimate her of the "embarrassing" development.

Congress' Kerala state chief K. Sudhakaran had said that the state party has issued a ban on party leaders participating in the national seminar to be organised by the CPI-M as part of its national conference at Kannur and if anyone violates the bar, they would have to face party action.

The CPI-M's 23rd party Congress will be held at the red fort of Kannur from April 6 to April 10, and the national seminar will be held during it.

The Left party had invited Tharoor and former Union Minister K.V. Thomas, who also hails from the state, for the seminar on national politics. The Congress had, however, issued a statement that no Congress leader must participate in the CPI-M seminar as the party is in a fight against the CPI-M due to the "anti-people policies" of the Left government led by Pinarayi Vijayan.