PATNA: The Bihar Congress on Monday expelled seven leaders from the party’s primary membership for six years for harming the party’s dignity by making what it described as baseless and misleading claims that tickets were sold in the recently concluded state assembly election.

The action was taken through an order issued by the party’s disciplinary committee chairman, Kapildeo Prasad Yadav. The committee also contended that the party had maintained complete transparency regarding the issues raised by the leaders in their alleged propaganda.

Leaders who have been expelled from the party include former Congress Seva Dal vice-president Aditya Paswan, former state Congress vice-president Shakeelur Rahman, former Kisan Congress president Raj Kumar Sharma, former state Youth Congress president Raj Kumar Rajan, the party’s EBC cell former president Kudan Gupta, Banka district Congress president Kanchana Kumari, and Ravi Golden from Nalanda district.

On 18 November, the party’s disciplinary committee had issued show-cause notices to 43 leaders, including former ministers and MLAs, for ‘offences’ such as deviation from party lines and making anti-party statements, thereby allegedly impacting the Congress’s prospects in the assembly polls.

The committee had asked all the leaders to submit their replies within three days, failing which strict action, including expulsion from the party for up to six years, would be initiated.

All the leaders who were issued notices were accused of giving statements from public platforms during the elections, which the party said were damaging to its reputation and had a bearing on the poll outcome.

Congress MP Tariq had also recently urged the party high command to conduct an impartial review of the entire ticket distribution process, saying that action should be taken against those found guilty of committing irregularities at any level.