Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was expelled on Saturday from all Congress positions for voting against its Rajya Sabha nominee Ajay Maken in Haryana, has accused the party of acting “selectively” and blamed this approach of the party for being in “dire straits”.
In a series of tweets accompanied with the copy of the expulsion order, Mr. Bishnoi, a four-time MLA, said “Congress also has rules for some leaders and exceptions for others. Rules are applied selectively. Indiscipline has been repeatedly ignored in the past. In my case, I listened to my soul & acted on my morals…(sic).”
Tagging Congress’ official account, Mr. Bishnoi wrote that “Had @incindia acted this swiftly & strongly in 2016 & on every other critical opportunity they’ve missed, they wouldn’t have been in such dire straits”. Mr. Bishnoi was referring to the cancellation of 14 Congress votes during the Rajya Sabha election in 2016, facilitating the victory of BJP-backed Independent candidate Subhash Chandra, a media baron.
Mr. Bishnoi was upset with the party’s central leadership for not considering him for the post of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president during a reshuffle this past month. He had made his displeasure public over the party’s decision through a series of tweets then.
Congress’ Haryana In-charge Vivek Bansal said the party would approach the Legislative Assembly Speaker with a plea to cancel the membership of Mr. Bishnoi before expelling him from the party.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, however, thanked Mr. Bishnoi and said that it was an opportunity for him to be part of the nation’s ideology. “He voted openly. He listened to his conscience. His vote must have been influenced by the policies and achievements of Modi government and our party’s ideology,” Mr. Lal told mediapersons.
Amid the blame game in the Congress’ State unit over the vote of a Congress MLA declared invalid, Mr. Bansal told The Hindu that the legislator would be identified soon and action initiated against them. He said that the MLAs showed him their votes, but the MLA, whose vote had been declared invalid, seemed to have “hoodwinked” him. “Had I noticed any discrepancy, I would have pointed then and there. But it seems the MLA hoodwinked me,” said Mr. Bansal.
Though Mr. Bansal refused to comment on the reports in a section of media accusing party’s Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry for the invalid vote quoting unidentified party sources, a video featuring Ms. Choudhry was being shared on the social media wherein she told a news channel that she “tick-marked” her vote within a second, showed it to Mr. Bansal and came out.
Ms. Choudhry has, however, already issued a denial through a tweet saying that speculations in a section of the media seeking to link her to the invalid vote in the Rajya Sabha election were “absolutely false, preposterous and a malicious propaganda aimed at tarnishing my reputation”.
