New Delhi: The Congress national leadership on Friday projected a face of unity within its Kerala unit even as it sent a strong signal against those at the helm putting their personal interests above the party's. The Congress high command held a brainstorming session in Delhi with party leaders from Kerala to discuss the strategy and the way forward ahead of next year's assembly elections. The meeting came amid a slew of speculations and controversies surrounding the state unit.

"We got a clear indication from our high command that Congress is very much connected with the people of Kerala, and emotionally and politically, people are looking for a change. So, we should not do anything that disrespects the people of Kerala. This was a clear indication, and we will take strong action if anyone says anything personally. Because we have no right to disrespect the people of Kerala," Deepa Dasmunshi, Congress in-charge for party affairs in Kerala, told reporters after the meeting.

She blamed the media for portraying the party negatively in the state, calling reports of a lack of unity among the leadership untrue. "The media is giving a wrong impression that there is no unity in the Congress party in Kerala, which is untrue. Everyone here has expressed strongly against LDF and against BJP. The leaders are strongly united, and they will speak in univocal voice," Dasmunshi said.

Announcing the decisions at the meet, she said in the next few months, the party has planned many programmes, starting in April with a state Congress conference of workers, which party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi will attend.

According to sources, the meeting also addressed the actions needed to bolster the organisation and prepare for next year's assembly elections.

In a post on X, Kharge asserted that the people would defeat the state's "oppressive" and "communal" factions. "Change is inevitable in Kerala. Congress has built the development paradigm and welfare model of Kerala, and we will do everything possible to bring our UDF to power. Next year, people will defeat both the oppressive and communal fronts in the state," Kharge said.

Besides Kharge, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Kerala Congress chief K Sudhakaran and CLP leader in the Kerala assembly V D Satheesan were also present at the meeting.

The meeting with senior leaders from Kerala comes amid a row over Thiruvananthapuram MP Tharoor's recent article in a newspaper, which drew criticism from some party leaders for his "praise" of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the state for boosting the investment climate. Tharoor has also hit out at the media for 'misrepresenting' his remarks made in Malayalam in a podcast.

Though it was widely speculated that the meeting would discuss the change in state leadership, no such deliberations happened. Earlier in the day, Congress leaders from Kerala engaged in intense parleys in the capital region before the meeting.

Meanwhile, K Sudhakaran, in an official statement on Friday, criticised certain media outlets in Kerala for allegedly spreading false reports under the guise of party leaders’ comments. "They claimed that I became emotional during the meeting and that there was an attempt to sideline me at the leadership level. How can such blatant fabrication be called journalism?" he questioned.

He emphasised that he never made any remarks undermining the party’s unity during the meeting. He asserted that such reporting damages the credibility of journalism. "KPCC strongly condemns this irresponsible style of reporting," Sudhakaran added.