Shimla: Wielding an iron rod after the recently held assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) on November 15 expelled 23 party leaders, including youth congress president Vikramaditya Singh’s loyalist Yadupati Thakur on charges of indiscipline for working against official party candidates. Thakur was also a strong contender for the ticket from Sarkaghat in Mandi district.
As per party ‘s official release, those expelled today include Inder Nanda, Honsar Singh and Vilayati Rana—all Baijnath, Anil Kumar Sharma, Yadupati Thakur and Arjun—all Sarkaghat, Sudhir Singh Katoch, Malendra Singh and Surinderpal Sharma-all Indora (Kangra), Suresh Tuli, Rakesh Chaudhry and Anuj Kashayp-all Dharamshala, Sanjay Dogra and Naresh Chauhan-both Nachan, Prince Sharma ,Kewal Krishan ,Ujaghar Chaudhry and Nati Raj Rani-all Nalagarh, Karan Parmar, Balbir Chaudhry and Gagan Singh-all Shahpur.
It is learnt that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has already shown his annoyance over PCC’s abrupt action and during his upcoming visit to Delhi, he is expected to meet central leaders to seek revocation of the PCC action.
When contacted PCC president Sukhwinder Sukhu said action has been taken against the party leaders on the basis of report/complaint sent by the candidates and also information provided by the respect Block Congress units
“The party discipline has to be enforced. It’s not material as who is the person but if he/she was defying the party decision in favor of a candidate, there is no option but to act. This is also important to send a message to the party cadres and also the leaders to remain loyal to the party”, he said.
About reports that the chief minister had also been indirectly backing some candidatures, who had rebelled or were from other parties, the PCC chief said, “I have not got any report from the candidates”.
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