Anand Sharma's exclusion from Congress Himachal Pradesh panels a price for dissent letter?

The Congress party on Wednesday excluded senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma from the new committees formed to ensure better coordination in its Himachal Pradesh unit. The development comes two days after Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a key meeting by starting a dialogue with some of the prominent "letter-writers", who had earlier written to her demanding an overhaul of the party and effective leadership.

Anand Sharma sidelined by Congress?

Anand Sharma is the only MP of the Congress from Himachal Pradesh and the Deputy Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha. He has also been a former Union minister, having held several portfolios, including Commerce Ministry. Congress announced Political Affairs Committee (Election Strategy Committee) for the state which has senior leaders including former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, PCC chief Kuldeep Rathore and CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri and former MP Viplove Thakur. The panel shall be presided over by the Congress' state incharge Rajiv Shukla.

Sharma's name is also missing from the state coordination committee, which also includes Kuldeep Rathore and Mukesh Agnihotri, besides Virbhadra Singh, Kaul Singh Thakur and some prominent leaders like Harsh Mahajan, Rajesh Dharmani, Chander Kumar, Suresh Chandel and Kuldeep Kumar. The Congress president also approved the six-member disciplinary committee for state unit that will be chaired by Viplove Thakur, All India Congress Committee general secretary K C Venugopal said. Himachal Pradesh will go for assembly polls in 2022.

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Sharma was among the leaders who attended a meeting called by Sonia Gandhi last week. Seven of those who had written the letter had been invited to the meeting which was also attended by some other party leaders. Apart from Anand Sharma, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha and Shashi Tharoor were part of the meeting. 

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi also attended. The Congress has already decided to hold elections for the post of Congress president and that process is underway. Sonia Gandhi will be meeting a host of other leaders in the coming days, the sources said.

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(With agency inputs)