Thiruvananthapuram,   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.

Speculations were rife that Thomas might move out of the Congress as he feels he is being treated as an outcast and it increased when he made a valiant attempt to get the lone Rajya Sabha seat.

Tongues wagged when reports surfaced of his presence at the CPI-M state party headquarters here last week and it increased when he was named as a guest to speak at the seminar of the CPI-M.

Hence all eyes are on if the two seasoned veterans will abide by the directions of the party president or will attends as guests at the CPI-M Party Congress.