Rajasthan Congress leader Hari singh quits party

Former Congress minister and senior Jat leader Hari Singh resigned from the Congress on Monday, but not before hitting his favourite targets – chief minister Ashok Gehlot, his team of ministers and the party functionaries. The 75-year-old leader, who served as vice-president in the previous Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, was issued at least three show notices by the party since August 2010 for publicly making allegations against PCC’s previous and present presidents and the chief minister.
Pradesh Congress Committee's (PCC) disciplinary committee had sought an explanation from Singh on October 17 for criticising Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and PCC chief over the sacking of former Water Resource minister Mahipal Maderna. "I was being sidelined by the party after the 2008 Assembly elections at the behest of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former PCC chief C P Joshi. I am being punished for stating truth. Now, I have no plan to join any political party and I will work in interest of people of Rajasthan and moreover for the peasantry," he told reporters here. In the letter, Singh said he was unhappy over the sorry state-of-affairs in Congress. Accusing the party of adopting double standards, he said no action was taken against Jaipur MP Mahesh Joshi and Rajya Sabha MP Ashk Ali Tank even after they exchanged heated words at a party's function in July. Singh held Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and state Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal responsible for administrative failure which led to the recent Gopalgarh incident in Bharatpur.     In another development at Alwar, the Akhil Bharatiya Varshiya Jat Mahasabha’s Rajasthan president Radhey Ram Godara hit out at the chief minister for sacking Maderna while failing to act against the other “tainted” ministers.