Sanjay Nirupam, who was expelled by the Congress for six years, said on Thursday that the grand old party had expelled him after it got his resignation letter.
The former MP, who had represented both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, was expelled from the Congress days after he hit out at his party leadership amid seat-sharing talks with Shiv Sena (UBT) for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Sharing a screenshot of his resignation mail to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Nirupam wrote on X, “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.”
Nirupam said he will give a detailed statement between 11:30 am and 12 pm today.
Nirupam, a former MP from Mumbai North, had hit out at the state leadership of Congress after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena declared its candidates for four out of six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, including the Mumbai North West seat, which he was eyeing.
He had said the Congress leadership shouldn’t allow itself to be arm-twisted by Shiv Sena (UBT).
“Accepting the Shiv Sena (UBT’s) decision to unilaterally field candidates in Mumbai amounted to allowing the destruction of Congress,” he had said.
The Maharashtra Congress passed a resolution seeking the expulsion of Nirupam and sent it to the party’s high command in Delhi. His name was also dropped from the party’s list of star campaigners.
Nirupam lost to BJP’s Gopal Shetty from the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Although he expressed interest in contesting for the Mumbai North West constituency, his plans were thwarted as Shiv Sena (UBT) put forward its own candidate, which complicated the situation.