Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 19 (TIWN): Eyebrows were raised when the CPI-M leadership invited Congress veterans Shashi Tharoor, the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member and former Union Minister K.V. Thomas to speak at a seminar which is being organised as part of the 23rd Party Congress of the CPI-M, to be held at Kannur next month.

But State Congress president K. Sudhakaran has informed the two party veterans that they should not attend the seminar.  "No way, they cannot attend the seminar because our cadres will not like it and it has been told to them," said a peeved Sudhakaran, who is known for his long running feud with the CPI-M at his home turf -- Kannur, which he represents in the Lok Sabha.  Responding to it, State Secretary of CPI-M Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said it's strange that when Congress leaders are seen at BJP events and also at the venue of SDPI -- the political outfit of Islamic organisation Popular Front of India, there is a ban on attending CPI-M events.  Incidentally, Tharoor had rubbed a huge section of the state leadership the wrong way when he took a position appreciating the efforts of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a few projects and Thomas who has had a long innings in both houses of the parliament and also as a State Minister in the past is cut up with the state leadership of the Congress after he was denied his sitting Lok Sabha seat - Ernakulam in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.