Patna: In a massive crackdown on rebels, the Congress leadership has expelled 45 leaders from the party for six years and also accepted the resignations of 51 others for indulging in anti-party activities during the just-held state polls in Bihar.
Most of the leaders who came in the firing line of the party had contested elections against official candidates of the Grand Alliance or openly worked against it, party officials said.
The decision to crack down on the party rebels was taken at a meeting of the Congress Disciplinary Committee held at the party offices on Monday evening, under the chairmanship of Jagannath Prasad Rai.
The committee came to the decision after seriously deliberating the issue for long and eventually decided to crack down on rebels without showing any leniency towards them in a bid to enforce discipline in the party.
“We decided to initiate severe punitive actions against leaders keeping in view their involvement in anti-party activities. The party’s view is that such kind of activities will not be tolerated at any cost,” state Congress spokesperson H.K. Verma said on Tuesday.
The prominent leaders on whom the axe fell include Ram Jatan Sinha, former Bihar party chief, Raghunandan Manjhi, Siddnath Rai, Ram Charitra Yadav and Sunita Devi.
Apart from them, the committee also accepted the resignations of 51 leaders who included Jamshed Ashraf, former minister, Harinarayan Chaudhary and Basant Singh.
Officials said the axe is also expected to fall on many party leaders after an internal inquiry is complete. Such officials have already been served show-cause notices with the instruction to send their reply within a week.
The Congress party fared exceptionally well in the just-held elections in Bihar after about two decades, winning 27 of the 41 seats it had been allotted under the seat-sharing arrangements with two other allies, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the JD-U (JD-U). The party has joined the Grand Alliance government in Bihar with four of its leaders finding berths in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, including present state party president Ashok Kumar Chaudhary who has been made education minister.
