Sonia Gandhi not to celebrate her birthday
New Delhi, Dec 8: In the wake of assault on women and casualties due to fire in Delhi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has decided not to celebrate her birthday. The longest serving Congress president will turn 73 on Monday.
Sources close to the Congress said that she is unhappy with the rising crime against women in the country and also the apathy shown towards the victims.
After gruesome rape and murder of Hyderabad veterinary Doctor, another rape survivor was burnt to death in UP's Unnao.
Sonia Gandhi took over as party president in 1998 and stepped down in 2017 to pave way for her son Rahul Gandhi who resigned after the poll debacle in 2019.
During Sonia Gandhi's tenure Congress saw successive government from 2004 to 2014 but was routed in 2014.
The party has adopted an aggressive posture against the government on the issue of rising crime against women, raising the issue in Parliament and outside.
The party is organising a rally on December 14 against government policies and economic slowdown. All the states have been asked to pitch in for the rally.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
