After poll rout in Chhattisgarh, Congress expels two former MLAs; issues notice to former minister

Raipur: Days after it lost the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, the Congress on Thursday expelled two of its former MLAs from the party and issued show cause notice to a former minister.

In Assembly polls held on November 7 and 17, the BJP came back to power by winning 54 seats in the 90-member House, while the Congress was reduced to 35 seats from the 68 it won in the 2018 edition.

Brihaspat Singh and Dr Vinay Jaiswal, Congress MLAs in the outgoing Assembly, were expelled for a period of six years for alleged anti-party activities, a leader said.

Singh and Jaiswal were not given tickets for the 2023 Assembly polls and the two levelled several charges against senior party leaders after the poll debacle.

Singh, former MLA from Ramanujganj (ST) constituency, had held AICC general secretary and party's in charge for Chhattisgarh Kumari Shejla and former deputy chief minister T S Singhdeo responsible for the defeat in the election.

In July 2021, Brihaspat Singh had accused Singh Deo of engineering an attack on a vehicle of his follow guard and had also alleged a threat to his life from the latter.

Jaiswal, who was elected as an MLA for the first time from Manendragarh in 2018, had claimed, after the Congress lost polls, that he had given money to AICC national secretary and in-charge for state Chandan Yadav.

In the expulsion order of Brihaspat Singh and Vinay Jaiswal, it has been stated that baseless allegations were levelled by them against the state in-charge and senior leaders after the results of Assembly poll results were declared on December 3.

On the instruction of the chief of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, the two leaders have been expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years, the order said.

In the show cause notice to former minister Jai Singh Agrawal, the party has said that after the results of the Assembly polls were declared, he had organized a press conference and raised questions on the (previous) Congress government and indirectly made serious allegations against the head (Chief Minister) of the government.

The notice said Agrawal's statement had tarnished the image of the party and asked him to furnish a clarification in three days.

The expulsion orders and show cause notice were issued by state Congress in charge general secretary (organisation and administration) Malkeet Singh Gaindu.

Agrawal had last week said his party lost the Assembly polls in the state because power had got centralised and ministers were not given their due rights, the statement being seen as an attack on former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.

He had also pointed fingers at Baghel over lack of collective leadership, focus only on rural seats, lack of "actual survey" ahead of polls and "the atmosphere of tussle" in the party.

Agrawal, a three-term MLA, suffered defeat this time from Korba seat against BJP's Lakahnlal Dewangan by a margin of 25,629 votes.