New Delhi: Congress MP and former Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor has been sacked as party spokesperson on the charge that he has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi once too often.

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) had wanted action against Tharoor for his praise of Narendra Modi and accepting the Prime Minister’s invite to him to participate in ‘Swachh Bharat-Abhiyaan’ campaign.

KPCC president V M Sudheeran said praises lavished on Modi repeatedly by Tharoor had hurt Congress and UDF workers who worked sincerely and tirelessly for his victory in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency for a second time.

Party president Sonia Gandhi has reportedly agreed with those in the Congress who allege that Mr. Tharoor has embarrassed and hurt the party with his “unnecessary adulation of PM Modi” in columns on news media.

He had consistently rejected suggestions that he was moving closer to the BJP by asserting that he was a “proud Congressman” and never endorsed the “Hindutva agenda” of the BJP.

“As a loyal worker of the Congress, I accept the decision of the party president,” said Shashi Tharoor.

The action against Tharoor comes at a time questions connected to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar at her hotel room in January have resurfaced. The Delhi Police are yet to pinpoint how she died; a team of doctors from AIIMS has said the 52-year-old died of poisoning, and not from an overdose of Alprax anti-depressant pills as another report had claimed previously.