Uttar Pradesh Congress leader demands Ghulam Nabi Azad's expulsion from party
Lucknow: A Congress leader in Uttar Pradesh has said the party should expel Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was among the 23 signatories to a letter that called for an overhaul of the organisation.
The 23 Congress leaders wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi, seeking an active and full-time leadership of the grand old party among other organisational changes.
"At the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, party chief Sonia Gandhi said she was hurt by the letter but now the issue is over. Even after that, he (Azad) spoke to the media and posted about it on Facebook the next day," Naseeb Pathan, who was a party MLC between 2004 and 2016, told PTI-Bhasha on Friday.
"As he has broken the party's discipline, he should be made 'azad' (free) and expelled from the party," he said.
Pathan also released a video on social media over the matter.
"You know you (Azad) got 320 votes in the Assembly when you contested for the first time. After that, you went everywhere as nominated. It is not appropriate to say such things about the party," he said.
When contacted, Congress's media coordinator in Uttar Pradesh Lalan Kumar said, "I am aware of this statement but I am not well." This is not the first time that Pathan has come out with a statement against Azad.
After the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, he had said Azad, who was the AICC in-charge of the state at that time, should take responsibility for the party's poor show in the election and resign.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
