The Congress on Sunday expelled 10 veteran leaders in Uttar Pradesh on charges of indiscipline after they allegedly criticised the revamp of its State unit.
These leaders had been openly and ‘unnecessarily’ opposing the decisions regarding the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee made by the All India Congress Committee and holding meetings against it for some time, the party said.
The leaders, expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years, are former MP Santosh Singh, former MLC Siraj Mehdi, former Ministers Ram Krishna Dwivedi and Satyadev Tripathi, former MLAs B.N. Mishra, Vinod Chaudhary and Nek Chandra Pandey, former UP Yuva Congress head S.P Goswami, former district president Gorakhpur Sanjeev Singh and Rajendra Singh Solanki, AICC member.
The veterans were allegedly unhappy as several youth members and newcomers were awarded posts and MLA Ajay Kumar Lallu was nominated as State president in place of Raj Babbar.
“Their conduct goes against the policies and ideals of the party and comes under the purview of indiscipline,” the UPCC disciplinary committee said in a statement signed by members Shyam Kishor Shukla, Imran Masood and Ajay Rai.
The committee said the ‘meetings’ they held and the media statements they made had “tarnished the image” of the party.
The party had on Thursday issued show cause notice to 11 leaders on the instructions of general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mr. Lallu to explain the allegations against them. However, the party found their replies ‘unsatisfactory’.
