Cong revamps disciplinary panel; drops Azad day after supporters resign from party

Congress on Thursday dropped senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sushil Kumar Shinde from its disciplinary committee as it reconstituted the panel with AK Antony continuing to head it while adding four new members, including former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara.

The omission of Azad, a prominent leader of G-23 or change-seekers in the party, came a day after a group of leaders supporting him in Jammu and Kashmir resigned from the party, alleging that they are not being heard and raising a banner of revolt against state party president Gulam Ahmed Mir.

The revamp of the Disciplinary Action Committee was necessitated with the death of Motilal Vohra, who was the member secretary of the panel. Azad, Shinde and former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mukut Mithi were the other four members who were dropped.

Also Read | Priyanka Gandhi's aggressive 'Hindutva' turn rattles BJP in Uttar Pradesh

In their place, Congress General Secretary Tariq Anwar will be the Member Secretary while Congress Working Committee member Ambika Soni, senior Delhi Congress leader Jai Prakash Aggarwal and Parameshwara will be other members.

With the selection of Parameshwara, he will be another senior leader from the state who has an assignment at the party's central organisation.

Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge is a member of the Congress Working Committee, Dinesh Gundu Rao, HK Patil and KH Muniyappa are Permanent Invitees to the CWC. Rao is the party in charge of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Goa while Patil is in-charge of Maharashtra.

Reacting to the resignation of around two dozen leaders from the party, Azad told a TV channel before the panel reconstitution happened that he came to know about the resignation a day later through media as he was in the interiors of the Jammu region as part of a public interaction programme. "These kinds of things happen in every party...It should not have happened. Unfortunately, it happened. They should be heard," he said.

The leaders considered close to Azad had quit claiming that they tried to reach out to party leadership but nobody heard them. The leaders had sent their resignation letters to party chief Sonia Gandhi, former president Rahul Gandhi and party in-charge Rajni Patil.

They alleged that state party chief Mir was incapable of leading the party in the state.

Azad along with 22 other senior Congress leaders had written to Sonia in August 2020 seeking clarity on leadership. They had also been campaigning for organisational election and perceived to be against the line taken by Rahul.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: