Emphasising that no leader of the Congress can presume “a birthright” to get ticket from the party, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Sunday that those who had announced that they would go against the party line and field candidates in constituencies either against party nominees or those of the Trinamool Congress, its electoral ally in West Bengal for the coming Assembly elections, might face expulsion from the party for up to six years.
“Those who are breaching party discipline and fielding candidates against the party or the alliance will be expelled,” Mr. Mukherjee said at an event to release the Congress' election manifesto for the coming elections.
The Congress could only expel these candidates, but had no control over the right of any individual to contest elections, he added.
However, Mr. Mukherjee asserted that there was no question of any support or sympathy for any sitting MLA who had been denied ticket and thus decided to contest the election independently.
“Nobody can claim that to obtain the ticket is his birthright. It is for the party to decide who will get the nomination and who will not get the nomination,” he said
Mr. Mukherjee said though he was unofficially “the number two person in the Cabinet of Indira Gandhi,” he himself was not given a nomination for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989. He wanted to contest, but had to accept the directions of the party.
Several local leaders of the Congress have been vocal about their discontent with the terms of the seat-sharing agreement with the Trinamool as well as the candidature of some of the Congress nominees.
Congress District Committee president from Murshidabad Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has announced that he will be supporting independent candidates in the four Assembly constituencies that have been claimed by the Trinamool Congress. He also opposed the candidature of Soumik, son of Congress MP Abdul Mannan Hossain.
Meanwhile Sahanaj Kadri, the cousin of Congress MP and the State's Youth Congress president Mausam Benazir Noor, who was denied ticket, has also announced that she will contest the elections. Sitting MLAs Ram Pyaare Ram and Abdul Khalek Molla, who have lost their constituencies during the delimitation process, have also said they will be contesting.
Mr. Mukherjee said there was no need to form a separate disciplinary committee to expel these leaders as the responsibility and power to do so rested with West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Manas Bhunia, who might wait until the last date for the withdrawal of candidature.
