Nair Service Society, an organisation of the upper-class Nair community in Kerala, said on Saturday that the Congress had neglected the community while allotting seats to various denominations in Kerala.

Addressing the NSS budget session in Changanassery in central Kerala, its general secretary P K Narayana Panickar said the Congress meted out a raw deal to the Nair community in seat allocation. “Earlier, the Congress used to give five out of 17 seats to the the Nair community members. This time, the party gave only four seats. Besides, a Rajya Sabha seat previously occupied by a Nair member had been allotted to Union Cabinet Minister Vayalar Ravi. (Ravi belongs to Ezhava, an OBC segment in Kerala). That was equal to insulting the Nair community,” he said.

The NSS, meanwhile, refused to accept the candidature of Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram. “Tharoor is a Nair, but he should not be pushed into the account of the NSS. He is a Delhi Nair,” G Sukumaran Nair, Panickar’s assistant, said.

Reacting to the comments, Tharoor, MoS for External Affairs, said he was not a mere “Delhi Nair but an Indian Nair”. “My father had worked with the NSS in Mumbai and Kolkata. I am ready to meet the NSS leaders,” he said. “The Congress might have considered my merit and not the community while giving the candidature and later the Cabinet berth,” he added.