Terming the conduct as serious indiscipline, the grand old party said they had acted against organisational interests and were expelled with immediate effect.
Mumbai: Facing huge embarrassment, the Congress on Friday expelled two of its candidates for withdrawing from the Legislative Council elections in Maharashtra. The action was taken against Sahebrao Kamble, party’s candidate from the Yavatmal constituency, and Shailesh Agarwal, its nominee from the Wardha–Chandrapur–Gadchiroli constituency.
According to party sources, Kamble and Agarwal were expelled for withdrawing their nominations without keeping the party leadership informed. Congress State President Harshvardhan Sapkal initiated this action and the party membership of both leaders has been revoked.
Terming the conduct as serious indiscipline, the grand old party said they had acted against organisational interests and were expelled with immediate effect. The move was aimed at enforcing discipline during the legislative council election process and preventing similar incidents in future, the party said.
Dushyant Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) was declared elected unopposed from the Yavatmal Local Authorities Constituency, while Arun Lakhani of the BJP secured an uncontested victory from the Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli Local Authorities Constituency.
In Yavatmal, Nitin Bhutada, who had claimed to be a BJP candidate, and Congress nominee Sahebrao Kamble, withdrew their nominations, paving the way for Chaturvedi’s unopposed election. Similarly, in the Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli constituency, Shailesh Agrawal withdrew his nomination, clearing the path for Arun Lakhani’s victory without a contest.
Congress’ action came a day after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena had expelled its candidates Bal Mane and Devyani Dongaonkar for anti-party activities. Mane was the candidate from the Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency, whereas Devyani Dongaonkar was nominated from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar-Jalna. However, both the nominees withdrew their candidature on the last day of withdrawal of applications.
