Five power centres in Congress: Ex-MP Nirupam

New Delhi, April 4

Expelled former Mumbai regional Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday slammed his old party for harbouring “multiple power centres, tremendous arrogance and a fixation with Nehruvian secularism which has expired”.

Addressing reporters a day after he was expelled by a late night order of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Nirupam said: “I was expelled minutes after I sent my resignation letter to Mr Kharge. They indeed wasted an A4 paper.”

Nirupam said the Congress was now history and had no future. “There is tremendous arrogance in the Congress, which has five power centres — three members of the Gandhi family, Congress president Kharge and AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal. The party continues to stick to the Nehruvian concept of secularism, in which there is no place for religion. Such secularism has expired,” Nirupam said.

He said he had raised an objection to Shiv Sena UBT fielding a “corrupt politician” as a candidate from the Mumbai North West seat. “I will not let him UBT candidate win,” said Nirupam, who is likely to join Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.