Internal rumblings in Pune Congress mar Shashi Tharoor event

Pune, May 18: An event of senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor was marred by internal rumblings in party's city unit coming out in open.

The moment Tharoor entered the Congress Bhavan in Shivajainagar area, supporters of Vishwajeet Kadam, President of Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress, started raising slogans in his favour, alleging that Kadam was not taken into confidence while organising the programme and the party protocol was not followed.

Tharoor was here to deliver a speech on 'Social Media and Political Communication'.

The programme was organised by Shehzad Poonawala, the newly appointed secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).

Kadam's supporters did not allow Poonawala and city Congress chief Ramesh Bagawe to start the programme.

Tharoor, who rose to speak, tried to pacify the gathering and said, "Vishwajeet is my friend and we often meet in Delhi and I appeal all of you to calm down."

The former Union Minister also said Kadam was not in in the city and would be coming late night. "And I will certainly meet him (Kadam) before leaving the city," Tharoor added.

After repeated pleas by Tharoor, Kadam's supporters, allowed him to speak. Kadam's supporters raised slogans once Poonawala and Bagwe rose to speak.

Kadam's supporters even tore posters of the event outside the Congress Bhavan. Kadam did not comment on the episode but said the party workers not only hailed him but also hailed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Tharoor.

Meanwhile, in his speech, Tharoor explained how BJP stole the show in 2014 elections using social media effectively and exhorted the party workers to exploit platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread its ideology.

"Till 2013, I was the only politician, who had over 10,000 followers on Twitter, however, thereafter, BJP went ahead by using these platforms more effectively," he said, adding Congress was left behind in the race.

PTI