Thiruvananthapuram,  A large number of Congress leaders and workers are an upset lot as veteran party leader K.V.Thomas appears determined to attend a seminar at the 23rd CPI-M Party Congress which gets underway in Kannur on Wednesday.

On Monday, the chief organiser of the event and also the CPI-M Kannur district secretary M.V.Jayarajan expressed hope that both Shashi Tharoor and Thomas attend the event.

Reacting to it, Thomas said he is waiting to hear from AICC president Sonia Gandhi as he has sought permission for it.

"Let us wait and see and don't jump to conclusions. This is not a state conference of the CPI-M, instead it's the national conference and all its national leaders are there. So let us wait," said Thomas.

Sevety-five-year old Thomas has been a Lok Sabha member from Ernakulam first from 1984 to 1996 and then he had two terms as a legislator and was a cabinet minister in A.K.Antony's ministry (2001-04). Then from 2009 to 2019 again he was in the Lok Sabha.

A peeved Rajmohan Unnithan, Congress Lok Sabha member from Kasargod said this is extremely bad of Thomas to have even considered attending the seminar.

"Fail to understand why Thomas is rearing to go to attend the seminar. He should best understand the sentiments of the Congress cadres in Kerala and behave accordingly. The Congress party has given him lots and he should not forget that," said Unnithan.

Incidentally, the CPI-M is making every attempt to woo Tharoor and Thomas to its seminar as its being held at the home turf of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and also State Congress president K.Sudhakaran.

Both Vijayan and Sudhakaran have been enaged in a long running feud and if the CPI-M manages to get even Thomas, who presently is upset after he was first denied his sitting Lok Sabha seat in 2019 polls and then again he made an attempt to get a seat to contest in the 2021 April Assembly polls, but that also failed to materialise.

Since then speculations were rife about Thomas crossing over to the CPI-M and the invite to him and if he turns up, would be a slap in the face of Sudhakaran, who has already warned that none should go.

Meanwhile on Monday afternoon, the AICC directed that no body should attend the seminar and that there is no change in the stand taken earlier. Now the ball is in Thomas's court.