A meeting called in the Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee office on Sunday to discuss the preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls reportedly disintegrated into a heated war of words between pro- and anti-Shashi Tharoor factions.

It is still not clear what exactly happened during the meeting. The only public version of what transpired during the meeting was the soundbyte given by DCC general secretary Thampanoor Satheesh, the most trenchant Tharoor critic in the DCC.

Satheesh told the media that he was manhandled by Tharoor's PA Praveen and eight to ten goondas when he came out of the DCC office after the meeting.

Onmanorama tried calling Praveen himself but could not get through. Instead, we talked to two DCC leaders who had attended the meeting. They said words were exchanged between Tharoor supporters and Thampanoor Satheesh and that tempers had flared. “But there was no physical assault as alleged by Thampanoor Satheesh,” a senior leader said.

Here is what Thampanoor Satheesh told Manorama News: “I was sitting with former Pathanamthitta DCC president Mohanraj during the meeting. I told him that whenever Tharoor comes for meetings, there will be 15 goons accompanying him. However, this time, I told him none of them should be allowed to attend the meeting and that they must be told to wait outside. I took such a stand because they are the persons who alienate Tharoor from the public. Hence, I told Mohanraj they would not be allowed under any circumstance to attend the meeting.”

He said he saw Mohanraj presenting the matter to Tharoor and something being typed into the phone. “Once I came out after the

meeting, eight or ten goons led by Tharoor's PA Praveen surrounded me in a planned manner and assaulted me,” said Satheesh.

However, the two DCC leaders Onmanorama talked to separately were amused that Satheesh made it seem as if he was not against Tharoor but only against his staff members. “In fact, Satheesh was very critical of Tharoor during the meeting. Senior leaders like K Muraleedharan and Palode Ravi warned him against his wild offensive against Tharoor,” the leader said.

The other DCC office-bearer said Satheesh told the meeting that Tharoor had lost touch with the voters and that he was now interested only in badmouthing senior Congress leaders. “After the meeting was over, some members of Tharoor's staff confronted him about certain accusations he made against the MP. This led to some heated exchanges. That was all,” the second source said.

Both said Satheesh did not get any support from the senior leaders at the meeting.