BackKarnataka Congress suspends Roshan Baig for 'anti-party activities'
All India Congress Committee has approved the proposal sent by KPCC to take action against Roshan BaigBaig had lashed out at the state leadership of the party for the poor outing in Karnataka in the Lok Sabha polls
PremiumThe Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Tuesday suspended senior legislator and former minister R. Roshan Baig for "anti-party activities".
"The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has approved the proposal sent by the KPCC to take action against Sri. R. Roshan Baig on account of his anti-party activities," the party said in a statement late on Tuesday. It added that the decision was taken after the party had conducted an inquiry enquiry into the matter.
The move may aggravate simmering dissent within the party. More so as it follows the induction two independent legislators into the state cabinet last week in an attempt to restrict their options of switching over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), thereby posing and in the process pose a threat to the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) government.
Baig had lashed out at the state leadership of the party for the poor outing in the Lok Sabha polls, in which the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) and Congress coalition was reduced to just one seat each of the total 28 parliamentary constituencies in the state.
"The Congress has had a flop show in Karnataka. Dinesh Gundu Rao is a flop show president and the CLP (Congress legislature party) leader (Siddaramaiah)...those who were flying should come back to the ground," Baig said last month.
Baig, a seven-time legislator, had also appealed to the Muslim community to join hands with the BJP as the Congress merely treated them as "bonded labour" and a vote bank. Baig could not be reached for comments immediately.
"Welcome the decision of AICC to suspend Roshan Baig from the Congress Party. He violated party discipline. Worked against the party in Lok Sabha elections, hobnobbed with BJP. Everyone knows that his actions and associations have brought great misery to common people," Rizwan Arshad, Congress leader and the unsuccessful candidate from Bengaluru Central, wrote on Twitter.
Baig, who had unsuccessfully tried to secure a party ticket to contest from the Bengaluru Central parliamentary seat, was also rumoured to have been planning to join the BJP.
His suspension comes at a time when he is one of the politicians whose names have been associated with the unravelling IMA Jewels scandal, in which thousands of small investors were defrauded to the tune of several hundred crores Of rupees by a Bengaluru-based company.
Baig has rubbished the allegations, describing as a ploy to tarnish the legislator’s image.
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