According to the news agency, former MP Sanjay Nirupam, who was expelled from the Congress on Wednesday, is expected to join the Shiv Sena on Thursday, which is led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. On April 4, according to Sanjay Nirupam, he would reveal his “next course of action.”
Sanjay Nirupam would be running for the Mumbai seat in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, which is expected to be granted to him by Shinde’s Shiv Sena, a source close to the politician told the newspaper hours before he was expelled from the Congress party.
“He has taken the decision to quit the Congress and wants to contest from a seat in Mumbai, which is likely to be offered to him by the Shinde Sena,” the source said.
While Sanjay Nirupam intended to run for the Mumbai North-West seat in the elections, Amol Kirtikar was named as the candidate by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, a Congress ally. The candidate for the constituency has not yet been revealed by the BJP-Shiv Shine coalition.
In 2005, Sanjay Nirupam joined the Congress after having previously been a member of the Shiv Sena in its entirety. He ran for the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 elections, but Gajanan Kirtikar of the Shinde Sena defeated him.
Nirupam’s remarks against Uddhav Thackeray and his Sena faction are said to have prompted Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to endorse Nirupam’s immediate six-year expulsion from the party. The Congress removed Nirupam’s name from their list of well-known campaigners earlier on Wednesday, signalling that the situation was getting worse.
Later on Wednesday night, the Congress formally ordered Nirupam’s expulsion from the party, citing his lack of discipline and remarks critical of the party.
The former Rajya Sabha MP made a pointed attack on the Congress only hours before it was banished from the party, stating that it should use its resources to save itself, including stationery and energy.
“Congress is in dire need of stationery and energy to help it out of its current financial predicament. The party has till today to complete the time frame I gave it. Tomorrow, I’ll lay out my next plan of action,” Sanjay Nirupam posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Following his criticism of the Maharashtra Congress leadership for “ceding” Mumbai constituencies to the party led by Uddhav Thackeray during seat-sharing negotiations of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, there was a growing demand for action against Nirupam.
