Ludhiana,Former District Congress Committee president Pawan Dewan today rejected his ‘expulsion’ from the party saying the Disciplinary Action Committee was not authorised to expel an elected member of the PCC and an elected district president. He said, the DAC chairman Gopal Krishen Chatrath had merely acted as a stenographer of the PCC president Partap Singh Bajwa by meekly following his (Bajwa’s) diktats without giving him and others any chance to present their case.
Reacting to his expulsion, Dewan said, the decision to expel him and five others from the party was premeditated. He said, the DAC chairman had not the courage or courtesy to serve the expulsion notice to them and had instead issued a press release prior to issuing the expulsion notice. “While I have got the DAC’s press release, I am yet to receive the expulsion notice on which the press release is supposed to have been based”, he remarked in a taunting tone.
He said, he will be taking up the illegal and unwarranted action of the PCC with the National Chairman of the Disciplinary Action Committee Mr AK Anthony and the Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi and urge them to probe the allegations against the PCC president.
The former Ludhiana district president said, he had asked Chatrath to specify which allegations he found baseless so that he could substantiate those with proof and evidence. “But he never bothered to specify the allegations or give me personal hearing which I had sought”, Dewan said, adding, it was obvious from the show cause notice only that he was blindly following Bajwa’s diktats to expel him and others.
He said, he never considered himself to be a part of the “Bajwa Congress” that PCC has been reduced to now and he will always work for the real Congress headed by Ms Sonia Gandhi. He reiterated his charges against Bajwa and said, he will continue to expose him with added vigour and commitment. “If Bajwa thinks that by expelling me and other loyal workers from the party he is going to save his chair he is miserably mistaken”, Dewan said, while asserting, he will take his fight to get Bajwa removed from the party to its logical conclusion. “This is the beginning of the end for Bajwa”, he remarked.