NEW DELHI: The conspicuous tension between Shashi Tharoor and the Congress party has become more pronounced as the Kerala unit leaders launched an unscathing attack on the Thiruvananthapuram MP after he pitched himself as the CM face for the state polls due next year.Ambitious Tharoor, who had earlier thrown his hat into the Congress presidential race, a move that reportedly left a sour taste for the Gandhis, once again stirred the pot on Wednesday by sharing a survey that found 28.3 per cent of respondents saw him as the most suitable leader for the state.The post by Thaoor triggered a reaction from the Kerala Congress unit, with senior party leader K Muraleedharan taking a swipe at Thaoor, saying “he should first decide which party he belongs to”.“Even if someone else is leading in the survey, if the UDF comes to power in the 2026 Assembly polls, the chief minister will be from the UDF,” Muraleedharan told reporters on Thursday, reacting to a query on Tharoor’s post on ‘X’.“Our aim is to win the elections. We are not interested in such unnecessary controversies,” he said.Amid growing rumblings within the Congress, senior leader Muraleedharan sought to downplay talk of Shashi Tharoor emerging as the party’s chief ministerial face in Kerala.“There are several senior leaders in the Kerala unit of Congress who would be in consideration for the post of CM, irrespective of what any survey says,” he said.Muraleedharan added that the party follows a defined internal process: “The party has a framework of rules according to which a decision would be taken as to who would be the next CM.”Another Kerala leader, Ramesh Chennithala, said it was not correct for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) member to praise PM Modi. “One thing is very clear, a Member of Parliament and a member of the CWC cannot praise the Prime Minister. It is not correct. It is painful for all the Congress workers and leaders in Kerala and throughout the country… It is a very serious issue,” Chennithala told news agency ANI.The rift between Tharoor and the Congress high command appears to have deepened, particularly after his reaction to the recent terror attack in Pahalgam. His remarks drew sharp internal criticism, with some in the party accusing him of putting the Congress on the defensive at a sensitive time.Kerala is set to go to polls in April next year, as the five-year term of the second LDF government, led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran Pinarayi Vijayan, comes to an end.