Congress suspends 37 leaders in Himachal Pradesh for six years

SHIMLA

: The Congress has suspended 37 leaders in

Himachal Pradesh

, including two former ministers, two former MLAs and an ex-president of NSUI, for six years for their

anti-party activities

during assembly election last year.

The action comes following the recommendations of Congress candidates and block and district committees. The primary membership of these leaders has also been cancelled.

In the assembly elections, presence of rebels on many seats had resulted in the defeat of the party candidates. Since then, there had been a demand for strict action against those involved in anti-party activities.

With this, the Congress has started analysing its defeat. Many felt that the party could have again come to power had infighting and factionalism not afflicted it. Rebels and anti-party activities were the result of internal dissension, said sources.

Before the elections, state party president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and then chief minister Virbhadra Singh had claimed the Congress win.

While different surveys indicated the formation of BJP government in Himachal Pradesh, Sukhu, after the voting was over, claimed the Congress would win. He had said that an internal survey of Congress showed that the party would form the government. But it was the BJP that came to power by winning 44 seats. The Congress had only 21 seats in its bag.

Prominent among those suspended include former minister Rangila Ram Rao from Sarkaghat who was political adviser of Virbhadra Singh in the previous regime and the vice-president of party; former minister Tek Chand Dogra from Nachan, who is also the party vice-president; Damodar Dass Chauhan from Nachan; Raghuvir Singh, Raptan Bodh, Rajender Karpa and Deepak Thakur, all four from Lahaul-Spiti.

Promila Devi, former candidate from Bhoranj; Upender Kant Mishra from Ani; Satpal from Ani; Karun Sharma, former NSUI president from Una; Rishi Sharma from Palampur; former

MLA Manjeet Dogra

from Barsar; Kuldeep Bedi, former block president, Sujanpur; Bobby Thakur from Sujanpur; Vinod from Hamirpur; and Jugal Kishore, former block president, Hamirpur.

Jasbir, Mahender Kumar, Ashwani Thakur, Ram Lubhaya, Madhusudan, Devi Kumar and Gurucharana, all from Gagret. Anil Prabha, Rajesh Verma, Uajagar Chaudhary, all from Jawalamukhi. Nalagarh’s Satnam Singh Rana, Prince Sharma, Mahesh Gautam. Gurmel Singh from Doon; Umesh Bhardwaj from Baijnath; Baldev Thakur from Balh; Shankar Singh from Shri Naina Deviji; Darshan Thakur from Rampur; Ishwar Singh Laktu from Rampur; and Intezar Ali from Paonta Sahib.


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