Mumbai:

Sanjay Nirupam, who was expelled from the Congress party yesterday, claimed that the party issued an expulsion letter immediately after he submitted his resignation last night. In a post on X, the former congressman shared his April 3 resignation letter. “It appears that as soon as the party received my resignation letter last night, they immediately decided to expel me. Glad to see it so timely. Just sharing this information. I will give details between 11:30 and 12 o’clock today statement,” he said in the post.

It seems that after the party received my resignation letter last night, it immediately decided to expel me.
Great to see so timely.
Just sharing this information.
I will provide a detailed statement between 11.30 and 12 PM today pic.twitter.com/3Wil8OaxuE

— Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) April 4, 2024

Mr Nirupam was yesterday expelled from the Congress party for six years for indiscipline and anti-party remarks.

This comes after the Mumbai leader had harsh words for the Congress party’s Indian ally Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray over the seat allocation in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections.

An official communication from the party said, “taking note of complaints of indiscipline and anti-party remarks, Congress president (Mallikarjun Kharge) has approved the expulsion of Sanjay Nirupam from the party for a period of six years with immediate effect” .

The Maharashtra unit of the Congress party had yesterday pushed for action against Mr Nirupam. He was also removed from the party’s list of star contenders for the upcoming polls.

Mr Nirupam wants to contest the polls from the Mumbai North-West constituency, where he lost to the Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar last time. But the Uddhav Thackeray-led party announced Gajanan Kirtika’s son Amol Kirtika as its candidate. Mr. Nirupam has since said that the state Congress leadership must not be coerced by Mr. Thackeray’s party, adding that the Sena cannot win any seat without Congress’ support. In a personal attack on Mr Thackeray, he called him the chief of the “Bachi Khuchi Shiv Sena”.

He also accused his candidate Amol Kirtikar of irregularities in participating in free food schemes during the coronavirus pandemic, popularly known as the “Khichdi Scam”.

Sitting MP Gajanan Kirtikar sided with Eknath Shinde camp during Shiv Sena split and with Uddhav Thackeray faction He withdrew from the race after endorsing his son as a candidate.

It is understood that the BJP wants to field its candidate to northwest Mumbai as part of its seat-sharing understanding with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Mr Nirupam, who defected to the Congress Shiv Sena in 2005, had earlier said “all options are open to him”.

Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party chief Chandrashekhar Bhavankule said that if someone like Nirupam thinks in line with the BJP, he is “always welcome”. “Looking at Sanjay Nirupam’s political tenure, he has done a lot to connect the people with the Congress. He is widely recognized in North India. With Sanjay Nirupam The talks are yet to take place but if he is ready and his ideas are aligned with the BJP, then someone like him is always welcome,” he said.

The Sena party led by Eknath Shinde also sent out feelers. “If he wants to join us, we welcome him. However, the final decision in this regard lies with Eknath Shinde,” MLA Sanjay Shirsat said.