Uttar Pradesh Cong leader demands expulsion of Ghulam Nabi Azad from party

After Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the signatories to the 'dissident' letter written to the party interim chief Sonia Gandhi, Naseeb Pathan, who was party MLC between 2004 and 2016, said the party should expel Ghulam Nabi Azad for his alleged misconduct against the Grand Old Party.

Lucknow: A Congress leader in Uttar Pradesh on Friday said the party should expel Ghulam Nabi Azad who is among 23 signatories to a letter which called for an overhaul of the organisation.

Twenty-three Congress leaders wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi, seeking an active and full-time party leadership among other organisational changes.

"In the CWC meeting, party chief Sonia Gandhi said that she was hurt by his letter but now the issue was over. Even after that, he talked to the media and posted on Facebook the next day," Naseeb Pathan, who was party MLC between 2004 and 2016, told a news agency.

"As he has broken the party's discipline, he should be made 'azad' and expelled from the party," he added.

Earlier in the day, Pathan had released a video on social media over the matter.

"You know you (Azad) got 320 votes in the assembly when you contested for the first time. After that, you went everywhere as nominated. It's not appropriate to say such things about the party," he said.

When contacted, the party's media coordinator Lalan Kumar said, "I am aware of this statement but I am not well."

This is not the first time that Pathan has given a statement against Azad.

After the 2017 assembly polls, he had said that Azad, who was UP Congress in-charge at that time, should take responsibility for the party's poor show in the elections and resign.

(PTI)