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A day after being expelled from Congress for ‘indiscipline’, Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday said the disciplinary action against him by the grand old party came following his resignation from the party’s primary membership. The Congress on Wednesday expelled the Maharashtra leader from the party for six years for making anti-party statements amid seat-sharing talks with Shiv Sena (UBT) for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Nirupam, a former MP, shared a screenshot of his resignation mail to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on X and wrote, “Looks like immediately after the party received my resignation letter last night, they decided to issue my expulsion. Good to see such promptness. Just sharing this information.”
Looks like, immediately after the party received my resignation letter last night, they decided to issue my expulsion.Good to see the such promptness.Just sharing this info.I will give detail statement today between 11.30 to 12 PM pic.twitter.com/3Wil8OaxuE— Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) April 4, 2024
The 59-year-old journalist-turned-politician addressed the media later in the day and attacked Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) for making ‘Khichdi chor’ Amol Kirtikarcandidate from Mumbai’s North-West seat.
Beginning address with ‘Jai Shri Ram’, Nirupam said, ” MVA made a khichadi chor our candidate. BJP was called the Bhrasht Janata party. What is your standing to call BJP, when you give a Khichadi chor a ticket? I had expected that my party would take note. I wrote my resignation to Kharge Ji at 10.43 PM,” he said.
Calling Congress directionless, he said there is no organisational strength in the party. Taking a dig at the Gandhi family and party high command, Nirupam said Congress has five power centres.
“All five– Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal– have their own lobbies and clash with each other,” he said.
He further stated that his patience has ended now. “There is huge frustration amid party cadres. On the ideological front as well, Congress calls itself secular. Mahatma Gandhi believed in sarva dharma samabhav. All ideologies have a time limit. Nehruvian secularism which denies religion, has ended. The unfortunate thing is, that Congress isn’t willing to accept it,” he added.
Nirupam further claimed that India has become a ‘fully religious’ country now.
“Even industrialists go to temples with a lot of pride. Ideologically, and organisationally, the (Congress) party is in a state of disarray. Congress has lost touch with reality. Half of the people are outdated and have to be scrapped,” he said.
When asked about his future plans, the former Congress leader said he would contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Mumbai North-West constituency.
“I will fight elections. I will fight from here. I will win from here. Those planning to write my obituary, I will disappoint them. I will decide future course of action after Navratri,” he added.
There was no immediate reaction from the Congress on Nirupam’s allegations, which could cause more unease in Maharashtra’s opposition bloc amid visible differences over seat-sharing.
Earlier, he also removed ‘Congressman’ from his X bio.
In his resignation letter to Kharge, Nirupam wrote, “I have finally decided to fulfil your much awaited desire and hereby announce that I choose to resign from the primary membership of All India Congress Committee.”
Action against Nirupam came after the Maharashtra unit of the Congress initiated disciplinary action for his recent remarks targeting party ally and Maha Vikas Aghadi member Shiv Sena (UBT) in the state.
Earlier, the Congress had also dropped Nirupam’s name as a star campaigner.
The demand for action against Nirupam grew after he castigated the state leadership for “ceding” constituencies in Mumbai to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena during seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha elections.
The former Congress MP was aiming to contest from Mumbai’s North-West seat, and had expressed his unhappiness over the Sena (UBT) fielding Amol Kirtikar.
Kirtikar, son of MP Gajanan Kirtikar, was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged irregularities in the distribution of ‘khichdi’ to migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Incidentally, Nirupam is a former two-time Rajya Sabha MP from (undivided) Shiv Sena and an ex-Mumbai North Lok Sabha MP of the Congress. There has been speculation claiming Nirupam may join BJP or Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
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