New Delhi: The Congress disciplinary committee on Monday decided to seek an explanation from senior leaders Sunil Jakhar and KV Thomas following complaints against them. The panel, headed by party veteran AK Antony met in Delhi after several party leaders complained that both leaders had defied the party's directive.
"We have decided to send a show-cause notice to them…we have given them a week’s time to reply… the committee will meet again and review their response…any action, if needed, will be taken on the basis of their replies,” Tariq Anwar, one of the members of the disciplinary committee, said. Jakhar, a former Punjab unit chief, had allegedly made some derogatory remarks against former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit Sikh leader.
Channi had raised the issue with Rahul Gandhi, who had appointed him to the top post last year just months ahead of the assembly polls. Congress leaders from the Dalit community, Udit Raj and Raj Kumar Verka had demanded that Jakhar be expelled from the party over his alleged remarks. Thomas, a former union minister, recently participated in a CPI-M meet against the party’s directive. Thomas had reportedly been upset with the Congress after he was denied a Rajya Sabha seat while Jakhar was reportedly miffed as he was not made the chief minister after the high command had decided to remove the then chief minister Amarinder Singh last year.
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Once the disciplinary panel goes through the replies of the two leaders, they will recommend suitable action to party chief Sonia Gandhi, who will then take a call on the matter. Earlier, the party had asked Shashi Tharoor not to attend a seminar on the Centre-State relations held as part of the 23rd party congress of the CPI-M. Tharoor had abided by the party directive but Thomas defied it, provoking both the central and the state leadership.
The Congress-led UDF had lost the last year's Kerala assembly polls to the CPI(M)-led LDF, which had won a second consecutive term under chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
