“He was miffed over not getting seat of his choice”: Congress’s Prithviraj Chavan on Sanjay Nirupam’s expulsion

Mumbai (Maharastra) [India], April 5 (ANI): Weighing in on the expulsion of Sanjay Nirupam from the Congress, party MLA and former Maharashtra chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan on Friday said the former was miffed with the state leadership for not getting a constituency of his choice for the Lok Sabha elections and was making ‘anti-party statements’ that led to him being axed.

According to sources, Nirupam was upset after not being considered as the Congress candidate for the Mumbai North-West seat. The grand old party eventually decided to set aside the constituency for the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), its partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Opposition alliance in the state.

Speaking to ANI on Thursday, the former CM said, “As the results in the last general elections in Mumbai did not go our way, the Congress had to come to an agreement to contest fewer seats (in the city) this time. We did not get the seat he (Nirupam) had been wanting to contest. He fell out with the state leadership and had been making anti-party statements ever since. The Congress had to take disciplinary action, and it did. He may have found an alternative for himself, as he was making constant sarcastic remarks against the party and creating obstacles in the alliance.”

However, a day after being expelled from the party, Nirupam held a press conference, claiming he had already tendered his resignation to party president Mallikarjun Kharge before being removed.

Coming out aggresively against his former party, Nirupam claimed ‘five power centres’ in the Congress.

“The Congress, today, is a party in complete disarray. Many leaders in the Congress called out the party earlier over its confused ideology and lack of direction. Now, the party is coming apart and suffering because of a weakening organisational presence in the state and elsewhere,” the expelled Congress leader said.

Mocking his formal expulsion from the grand old party, the former Rajya Sabha MP said they ended up wasting an ‘A-4 size paper’.

“Around 10.40 pm yesterday, I sent my resignation letter to Mallikarjun Kharge. I think the frank expressions and the candid words in my resignation letter might have upset them (the state leadership). They would have thought it would be too much not to react and, hence, arrived at this decision (to expel him from the party). However, it is a pity that they had to waste an A-4 sized paper ror me,” Nirupam said at the press conference on Thursday.

Nirupam was earlier removed from the list of the Congress’s star campaigners in the state ahead of the general elections.

The move came in light of his recent remarks against Sena (UBT) amid seat-sharing talks for the seven-phased elections.

Shiv Sena (UBT) declared Amol Kirtikar as its candidate from Mumbai North West, which Nirupam was keen on contesting this year.