Mumbai: Former MP Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday took a swipe at the Congress leadership over his expulsion, claiming it was done after he sent his resignation letter to the party.

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.

On Thursday morning, former Mumbai Congress chief Nirupam in a post on X said, “Looks like, immediately after the party received my resignation letter last night, they decided to issue my expulsion. Good to see such promptness.”

In the letter to Kharge, Nirupam said, “I have finally decided to fulfil your much awaited desire and hereby announce that I chose to resign from the primary membership of the All India Congress Committee.”

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 Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance for Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Congress dropped Nirupam’s name as a star campaigner, indicating the crisis was escalating.

Nirupam then launched a sharp attack, saying as the party was experiencing a “serious financial crisis”, it should utilise the stationery and energy to save itself, apparently alluding to the Income Tax Department’s action for tax demand.

The former MP from Mumbai North had also said the Congress leadership should not allow itself to be arm-twisted by the Shiv Sena (UBT).

Accepting the Shiv Sena (UBT’s) decision to unilaterally field candidates in Mumbai amounted to allowing the destruction of Congress, he had claimed.

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.

New Delhi: Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh resigned from all posts and membership of the party on Thursday, saying that neither can he raise anti-Sanatan slogans nor abuse ‘wealth creators’ day in and day out.

Vallabh shared his resignation letter written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on social media platform X.

He said he was not feeling comfortable with the directionless way in which the party was moving forward.

Vallabh said, “I can neither raise anti-Sanatan slogans nor abuse wealth creators day in and day out. Therefore, I resign from all posts and primary membership of the party.” He had not been attending television programs on behalf of the party for several months and had not held any press conference for a long time.

In his resignation letter, Vallabh said, “When I joined Congress, I believed that Congress is the oldest party in the country which respects youth and intellectual people and their ideas. But for some time, I felt that the party was not able to adjust with the youth having new ideas.”

Vallabh claimed the Congress is completely cut off from the ground and is unable to understand the aspirations of a new India, due to which the party is neither coming to power nor is able to play the role of a strong opposition.

He also said that he was upset with the stance taken by the party of staying away from the Ram Mandir ‘Pran Pratishtha’ programme in Ayodhya.

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Thursday refuses to entertain a PIL seeking the removal of Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy-linked money laundering case.

The high court said at times, personal interest has to be subordinate to national interest.

“At times, personal interest has to be subordinate to national interest but that is his personal call. We are a court of law and have to go by the law. Your remedy does not lie here, it lies elsewhere. You go before the competent forum,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora said.

The bench said it has recently dismissed a similar PIL seeking removal of Kejriwal from the post of chief minister and thus, it cannot take a different view.

As the court refused to interfere in the issue, petitioner Vishnu Gupta’s lawyer said he has instructions to withdraw the petition and that he will approach the Lieutenant Governor with his plea.

The court disposed of the plea while allowing the petitioner to withdraw the petition.

Belthangady, Karnataka: In an incident of theft reported from Belthangady, thieves targeted a nut warehouse in Tannirupantha, leaving the owner, Abdul Hakeem, at a loss of Rs 1.35 lakh. The incident, which occurred under the Punjalkatte police station limits, saw the miscreants breaking into the warehouse by force.

Abdul Hakeem, a resident of Tannirupantha, reported the theft after discovering that 25 bags of unshelled nuts, valued at Rs 1,35,000, were missing. He had secured the 75 sacks in the warehouse the previous evening and was shocked to find the door broken the next morning.

Local police have registered a case at Punjalkatte police station and are investigating the matter further.

NIA officers are reported to have conducted an investigation against a Circle Inspector for aiding the mother of Rameshwaram Café blast accused Muzammil Shareef to get a rented house in Chikkamagaluru. The accused had revealed the help of the police officer to NIA after his arrest.

Muzammil Shareef, a resident of Kalasa, had brought his mother to Chikkamagaluru and rented a house. It is reported that a Circle Inspector had helped him to obtain the residence. NIA is said to be gathering information on the nature of the officer’s contact with the blast accused.