Ashok Choudhary the erstwhile Bihar Congress President who on Tuesday was sacked from his post by party President Sonia Gandhi, has termed the expulsion as insulting.
He told the media that he welcomes the decision but he didn’t deserve the way he was insulted and expelled. He further stated that he didn’t want to leave the party but he doesn’t have a choice. This statement is interesting considering the fact that he only seems to have been removed from his post and not from the party.
Things also turned dramatic when he claimed that his expulsion was an insult to Dalits and also made various allegations against Congress General Secretary CP Joshi. He alleged that leaders like CP Joshi are present inside the Congress party who insult Dalits and also claimed that he would only resign after being directed to do so by Rahul Gandhi.
This whole expulsion episode seems to have been as a result of allegations against him and the leaders of his faction, that they made an unsuccessful bid to split the party, after Nitish Kumar walked out of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.
We had reported that the Bihar Congress was on the verge of a split with 14 of the total 27 MLAs forming a internal group, in order to cross over to the JD(U). This manoeuvre then raised alarm bells in the Congress High Command, which had then summoned Ashok Choudhary and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Sadanand Singh to New Delhi.
There it was also claimed that the differences had arisen in the party over the party leadership’s decision to wholeheartedly back Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Choudhary who was reported to be leading the rebel faction was appointed to the post on March 30, 2013 and was the longest serving president of the state Congress. The duties of Choudhary would now be executed by Kaukab Quadri the vice president of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee until a new president is appointed.
It remains to be seen if this move which clearly seems to have been made quell dissent, really ends up achieving its purpose. It might so happen that the expulsion might prompt Choudhary to try and break the party with new vigour.
Choudhary in the past has also been in the news for a completely different reason. He was attacked by Smriti Irani on twitter who objected to him referring to her as “Dear @smritiirani ji”. This ensued a spat between them over the ethics of the usage of the word “Dear” which ended with him apologising to her if he had hurt her feelings in any way.
