Mumbai: The Congress has finally expelled rebel MLA Abdul Sattar from the party for indulging in anti-party activities.

State party chief Ashok Chavan made the announcement in Jalna on Saturday.  “Some people in the party are engaged in anti-party activities. We will not tolerate this,” said Mr Chavan.  

Mr Sattar has announced his support to Harshvardhan Jadhav, who is contesting as an independent candidate from Aurangabad. Mr Jadhav is the son-in-law of the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Raosaheb Danve.  

“We had taken Mr Sattar into confidence while announcing the nominee of Jalna seat. We had even offered him a candidature, but he did not accept it. We offered him respect till he was in the party. But he has now been expelled and the issue is over,” said Mr Chavan.  

“Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi has also been informed about Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and a decision regarding him will be taken soon,” he added.

Mr Sattar, a legislator from Sillod in Aurangabad district, was reportedly unhappy over Congress nominees for the Aurangabad and Jalna constituencies. The Congress had announced the names of Subhash Zambad, sitting member of legislative council (MLC) and Vilas Autade for the Aurangabad and Jalna Loka Sabha constituencies respectively.

Irked by this, Mr Sattar had resigned from his post of MLA and submitted nomination as an independent candidate from the Aurangabad constituency.

He had even met chief minister Devendra Fadn-avis at his official residence Varsha to seek his support.

However, he later withdrew his nomination.  

However, the sources from the BJP have disclosed that CM had assured him a ticket in assembly polls from the party and asked him to withdraw his nomination.  

Mr Zambad is facing a tough battle from Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khiare in Aurangabad constituency.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate Imtiyaz Jalil is also contesting from Aurangabad with the support of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar.

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