Many more Congress leaders feeling 'suffocated': HP BJP chief on Anand Sharma quitting party post

Shimla: A day after senior Congress leader Anand Sharma resigned from the chairmanship of the party's steering committee for Himachal Pradesh, state BJP president Suresh Kashyap on Monday claimed many other Congress leaders are feeling "suffocated" in the party and will soon follow suit.

In a statement issued here, Kashyap said, "It is clear that Anand Sharma has taken this step due the insult he had faced in the Congress party." Many Congress leaders are feeling suffocated in the party and are either leaving the party or resigning from important posts, he claimed.

The state BJP president and Shimla MP also claimed many more leaders in the Congress would follow in the footsteps of Anand Sharma soon.

Sharma on Sunday resigned from the chairmanship of the party's steering committee for the state, saying he was left with no choice after the "continuing exclusion and insults".

Sharma, in a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is learnt to have said he was not consulted on the planning for the assembly elections and cited several examples where he was not invited for discussions.

Kashyap said, "It is not only Anand Sharma, but leader of opposition in Himachal Assembly Mukesh Agnihotri and MLA Satpal Raizada have also opposed their Congress party openly." Agnihotri, in a statement, questioned the process of allocation of MLA tickets by his party and alleged influence of money in it.