New Delhi, Nov 4: The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) has suspended 215 office-bearers across seven states and the Uttar Pradesh Central unit for skipping the INDIA bloc’s November 1 rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, in a disciplinary action ordered by the organisation’s national leadership.
The suspensions will remain in force until further notice, with the leadership treating the absence from the major Opposition mobilisation as a failure to follow organisational directions.
According to figures available, the action covers 60 office-bearers in Madhya Pradesh, 49 in Gujarat, 32 in Jharkhand, 26 in West Bengal, 14 in Telangana, 13 in Himachal Pradesh, 11 in Uttar Pradesh Central and 10 in Haryana.
Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of suspensions. Those facing action include 32 state secretaries, 14 general secretaries, five vice-presidents and nine district presidents.
In Haryana, 10 office-bearers, including nine state-level functionaries and a district president, have been suspended, while Jharkhand has also seen action against 32 office-bearers.
Sources said those suspended would have to demonstrate renewed organisational commitment through ground-level work and compliance with directions from the leadership before their suspensions could be revoked.
“Suspended office-bearers have to work hard again to remove the suspension. They need to be on the ground and follow the leadership and the directions,” sources said.
The disciplinary move follows the INDIA bloc’s ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ rally at Ramlila Maidan on November 1, organised to protest against alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The rally was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, among other Opposition leaders.
Opposition leaders marched from the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction to Ramlila Maidan, where Rahul Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of facilitating alleged vote theft. He also asserted that Kumar would be removed from office and jailed.
The suspensions come days after the Congress projected the rally as a major show of Opposition unity and organisational mobilisation against alleged electoral irregularities.
