04 April,2024 01:17 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sanjay Nirupam. File Pic
A day after being expelled from the Congress, former MP Sanjay Nirupam hit out at the grand old party on Thursday and claimed there is "tremendous arrogance" in the party leadership, reported news agency PTI.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Sanjay Nirupam further claimed the Congress is history and has no future and that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is a merger of three "sick units", reported PTI.
The opposition MVA comprises the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).
"There is tremendous arrogance in the Congress leadership," Sanjay Nirupam alleged, reported PTI.
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The former Mumbai Congress chief also claimed that those wanting to write his political obituary will feel ground beneath them sinking after June 4, the day of counting of votes for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Taking note of complaints of indiscipline and anti-party statements, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge late Wednesday evening approved Nirupam's expulsion from the party for six years with immediate effect.
Nirupam, who was eyeing the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, was miffed with the party for allowing the Shiv Sena (UBT) to take the seat for the upcoming parliamentary polls.
The demand for action against Nirupam grew after he castigated the Maharashtra Congress leadership for "ceding" constituencies in Mumbai to the Uddhav Thackeray-led party during seat-sharing talks of the MVA for the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Nirupam on Thursday said what he spoke in the public was not against the Congress, but he was asking the party not to surrender to the Shiv Sena (UBT), reported PTI.
"Secularism doesn't mean disregarding one's own religion," he said.
"The Nehruvian secularism, which opposed religion and is under the Leftist influence, has expired," Nirupam claimed, reported PTI.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Congress dropped Nirupam's name as a star campaigner, indicating the crisis was escalating.
A former Shiv Sainik, Nirupam quit Shiv Sena in 2005.
He took up the cause of north Indian hawkers and subsequently made his way into the Congress. In 2009, he successfully contested from Mumbai North seat.
Nirupam lost the 2014 elections from the same constituency against BJP's Gopal Shetty.
(With inputs from PTI)
