Anand Sharma
Jolt for Congress ahead of Himachal polls as veteran leader Anand Sharma quits key post
Shimla: Veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma has quit as chairman of the steering committee for the Himachal Pradesh assembly election, saying that he felt left out of the party's decision-making at a crucial time when Congress was focussing on wresting power from BJP in the state.
In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Sharma wrote he he had been "ignored" in party consultations ahead of assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and his self-respect was non-negotiable.
The former union minister and deputy leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha was appointed chairman of the party's "steering committee" in Himachal Pradesh on April 26.
Sharma is the second senior Congress leader to quit a key party post in a matter of days after Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from a similar party post in Jammu and Kashmir, bringing to plain sight a revolt within.
Azad is part of the Congress dissidents dubbed the "G-23". He resigned as the chairman of the campaign committee as well as the political affairs panel in Jammu and Kashmir a few days ago.
Anand Sharma is one of the tallest leaders of Congress. He first contested assembly elections in 1982.
He entered parliament in 1984 when the then prime minister Indira Gandhi gave him a Rajya Sabha ticket. Since then he has been a member of the upper House and has held several key posts within the party and top ministerial positions in Congress-led governments.
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