In parting blow, Sanjay Nirupam slams Congress ‘high-command’

Sanjay Nirupam is most likely to join either Shiv Sena (Shinde) or BJP. File Pic/Sameer Markande

A day after his expulsion late Wednesday night, former MP Sanjay Nirupam lashed out at the Congress leadership and told his detractors that he would contest the Lok Sabha elections and win from Mumbai. Nirupam is interested in contesting from Mumbai North West where he had been preparing to be the Congress candidate, but MVA ally Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded Amol Kirtikar from there.

He is most likely to join either Shiv Sena (Shinde) or the BJP. Nirupam had sent his resignation before he was expelled late Wednesday night. He had infuriated the Congress leadership with his criticism that it had written the party's obituary by ceding five seats in the city, including Mumbai North West, where he had contested in 2019 and prepared to fight again. He reiterated on Thursday that the Congress had five power centres.

President Mallikarjun Kharge did not listen to anyone, he said, adding that the general secretary (KC Venugopal) did not understand what others were saying and vice versa. "The top three [Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka] do not meet [to redress grievances]," he said. He also slammed the state president Nana Patole for acting in the interest of other parties.

Nirupam said the negotiations for seats in Mumbai were done in such a way that the Congress would be wiped out, leaving the entire opposition space to the Thackeray Sena. He blamed Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut for engineering the destruction of Uddhav's undivided party, followed by Sharad Pawar's NCP.

"My seat was deliberately given to the Sena. People who are trying to write my political obituary should note that I will contest and win from Mumbai," he said, adding that Congress was eroding fast and losing the mainstream and the MVA was an outcome of the merger of three loss-making units.

Rediscovering his love for Hindutva that he would express when he was in the undivided Sena, Nirupam said the Congress was a party that took action against its leaders for holding a puja in the party office. "Someone told me about this when I wanted to hold a Satya Narayan puja at Mumbai Congress office when I was heading the city unit. Secularism is not like being indifferent to your own religion," he said while finding the period before April 9 inauspicious for making any good move (read defection).

‘Nirupam is anti-Hindu'

BJP sympathiser Mohit Kamboj said he would oppose if his party planned to induct an anti-Hindu like Nirupam. "Nirupam is a liability. Finally, the Congress expelled him. He is the same person who had criticised Modi ji and BJP.

He is the same anti-Hindu person who had organised a beef party in Mumbai. He will be a liability wherever he goes. I will oppose him till my last breath," added Kamboj. Addressing CM Shinde, Kamboj has released a video that has Nirupam's statements in which he draws a parallel between PM Modi and Aurangzeb, and calls surgical strikes fake.

"Citizens of North West constituency make an appeal to CM Eknath Shinde and oppose the candidature of Sanjay Nirupam for Lok Sabha," said Kamboj, adding, "The Congress has thrown the garbage out in the streets. We should not bring that garbage inside our homes.

It should be taken to the dumping grounds. If one thinks Nirupam is very popular, then I say that (actor) Rakhi Sawant has more public support and enjoys more popularity. Take Rakhi Sawant in your party, not Nirupam."

2019
Year Nirupam contested from Mum North West