Bhubaneswar: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has expelled senior party leader Mohammed Moquim, former MLA from Barabati-Cuttack, from the primary membership of the party.
The expulsion was approved due to Moquim’s “anti-party activities”, according to a press release issued by the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee.
The action follows Moquim’s questioning of the party leadership after the Nuapada by-election defeat. In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Moquim had sought “open-heart surgery” and “deep structural and ideological renewal” for the party, warning of the party’s legacy slipping away.
In the letter, Moquim lamented six consecutive defeats in Odisha and recent poll defeats in other states, citing a “wider emotional disconnect” felt by party workers. He had also expressed disappointment over not being granted a meeting with Rahul Gandhi for nearly three years.
The AICC has approved the expulsion, effective immediately.
