Maharashtra Congress expels former MLA Ashish Deshmukh for anti-party activities
The Hindu
The Maharashtra Congress has expelled former MLA Ashish Deshmukh from the party for six years over his anti-party statements against the party leadership.
The Maharashtra Congress has expelled former MLA Ashish Deshmukh from the party for six years over his anti-party statements against the party leadership.
Mr. Deshmukh, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from the Katol Assembly segment (2014-2019) in Nagpur district during the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, has raised eyebrows with his statements highlighting the schisms within the Congress’ leadership in the State, particularly in the Vidarbha region.
The order of expulsion was issued to Mr. Deshmukh by senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, chairperson of the State Congress disciplinary committee, in a letter dated May 22.
The letter said the committee had discussed Mr. Dehmukh’s reply submitted on April 9 to a show cause notice issued to him last month.
“We found the reply regarding your public utterances against the party unsatisfactory. You are expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years with immediate effect,’” reads the letter.
Known for his controversial comments against the State Congress leadership, Mr. Deshmukh, the nephew of senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had trained his guns on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently.
He had said that Mr. Gandhi ought to apologise to the Other Backward Class (OBC) community over his remarks on the Modi surname.