Sonia revokes expulsion of Vidarbha leader

New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has revoked the expulsion of former state minister Satish Chaturvedi.

In an official release, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said, "Congress President has approved the recommendation of the All India Congress Committee for revocation of expulsion of Chaturvedi, ex-Minister, Maharashtra, from the party with immediate effect."

According to Congress leaders, Chaturvedi is a a strong face of the party in the Vidarbha region of the state. He was expelled in February 2018 for six years by then Maharashtra Congress unit chief Ashok Chavan.

The decision comes a week after Sonia Gandhi constituted a screening committee with former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia as its chairman and Harish Chaudhary and Manickam Tagore as its members.

She also made Mallikarjun Kharge the Congress General Secretary in-charge of the state, Balasaheb Tharot as the state unit chief and K.C. Padavi as the CLP leader.

Chaturvedi, who has been elected as MLA from Nagpur five times, is a tall leader of the party in the Vidarbha region and has been associated with the party for over five decades.

Party leaders said his re-admission ahead of the elections will give a boost to the Congress in the assembly elections scheduled this year.

Chaturvedi's son Dushyant, however, joined the Shiv Sena a few months back. In the 2014 elections, the BJP came to power by winning 122 seats in the 288 member Assembly. BJP's ally Shiv Sena won 62 seats. The Congress and the NCP bagged 42 and 41 seats, respectively.