The Congress on Wednesday expelled senior party leader Sanjay Nirupam for a period of six years citing indiscipline and for making statements against the party.
The action against the former MP came days after his statements against the Congress leadership amid seat-sharing negotiations with the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena. Both parties are part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aaghadi alliance in Maharashtra.
Nirupam had expressed his disappointment about Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) being named the alliance’s candidate for the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, a seat he wanted to contest. Nirupam had represented the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency from 2009 to 2014.
The party had dropped Nirupam from the list of star campaigners earlier.
On Thursday morning, Nirupam claimed in a social media post that the Congress had issued his expulsion order after he emailed his resignation letter to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge. He shared a screenshot of his email, which said that he chose “to resign from the primary membership of the All India Congress Committee”.
On Wednesday, hours before the party issued expulsion orders against him, he hinted at quitting the Congress saying that the “party should not waste much energy and stationery for me”.
He said that the time of one week he had given to the party to explain its position on sharing the Mumbai North West seat with its alliance partner had ended on Wednesday. “Tomorrow I will take the decision myself,” he added.
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