A defiant Nirupam has said he will announce his next move on Thursday.
The Congress party capped off a day of rapid development by expelling senior Maharashtra leader Sanjay Nirupam for six years for making “anti-party remarks”. The party had earlier on Wednesday removed him from its list of star candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and sources said the state unit is preparing a proposal to expel him and will submit it to the central leadership.
After announcing a number of candidates for Maharashtra’s Lok Sabha constituencies, including north-western Mumbai seats, Mr Nirupam made a series of comments targeting Congress party’s Indian ally Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and Shiv Sena The proposal came after remarks by its leader Uddhav Thackeray. Congressional leaders are reportedly paying attention to the situation.
Previously, he had also made remarks that were inconsistent with the official position of the Congress Party on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the convenor of another party ally AAP.
Announcing Mr Nirupam’s expulsion from the party late on Wednesday, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in a statement: “Considering complaints of indiscipline and anti-party remarks, the Congress president has approved the expulsion of Shri Sanjay Nirupam Expelled from the party. Six years, effective immediately.”
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said, “We have removed him (Mr Nirupam) from the list of star campaigners and targeted His comments resulted in disciplinary action being taken against him.”
A defiant Nirupam lashed out at the Congress after being ousted as star campaigner and said he would announce his next course of action on Thursday.
Personal attacks
The Shiv Sena (UBT), a member of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, along with the Congress and the National Conference Party (NCP), on March 27 announced a list of 16 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. The list included the name of Amol Kirtikar’s son – the sitting MP – contesting from the north-west Mumbai seat, triggering a tirade from Mr Nirupam.
“Shiv Sena UBT has occupied five seats in Mumbai. There seems to be a plan to bury the Congress in Mumbai. It seems the Shiv Sena wants to force the Congress to kneel down,” said a senior Congress leader from Mumbai who was a former Lok Sabha MP said the MP for the North constituency, member of the House of Commons and chairman of the party’s Mumbai chapter.
“I appeal to the Congress leadership to intervene or end the alliance with the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena is making a big mistake if it thinks it can fight alone,” he added.
Mr. Nirupam took a dig at Uddhav Thackeray for the Shiv Sena split engineered by current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde , calling him “bachi kuchi Shiv Sena chief (The leader of the remnants of the Shiv Sena)”.
He also lashed out at Mr Kirtikar, claiming he was involved in the “Khichdi scam” – alleged irregularities in the distribution of food to migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nirupam’s remarks are seen as exacerbating the seat-sharing issue for the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which is part of the Centre’s Indian Alliance.
“A decision will be announced tomorrow”
After he was dropped from the list of star campaigners, Mr. Nirupam had mentioned that the Congress party’s accounts were frozen and said the Congress party should use its stationery and energy to save itself.
In a post by Schedule party given ends today. I will detail my next steps tomorrow,” he tweeted.
The timeline refers to his earlier comments giving Congress a week to decide on ending the alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT).
If Nirupam decides to defect, he is likely to be spoiled as leaders of the Eknath Shindh faction of the BJP and the Shiv Sena have said they would welcome him to their parties.
