Maharashtra Congress Suspends MLA Sulbha Khodke For ‘Anti-Party Activities’, She’s Likely To Join NCP

The Maharashtra Congress suspended MLA Sulbha Khodke for 6 years due to anti-party activities. Khodke, one of 7 MLAs who cross-voted in the legislative council elections, will likely join the NCP.

Mumbai, Oct 12 (PTI) The Congress in Maharashtra on Saturday suspended Sulbha Khodke, MLA from Amravati, for six years for "anti party activities" ahead of assembly elections.

Khodke was one of the seven MLAs who cross-voted in the legislative council elections which resulted in the defeat of PWP leader Jayant Patil, a candidate of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of the Opposition, earlier this year.

There were numerous complaints about Khodke working against the party, said state Congress chief Nana Patole in a statement.

The decision to suspend her was taken on the instructions of the party's Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, he said.

Khodke's husband is a close aide of deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. She is likely to join the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, sources said. 

MVA allies have reached agreement on 210 of 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra: Raut 

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi allies have worked out the sharing formula for 210 of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra.

The alliance, which comprises the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, Congress, and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), will declare these seats soon, he told reporters here.

"Meetings are over. We met (NCP-SP chief) Sharad Pawar on Thursday. Agreement has been reached on 210 seats. We will declare these seats. Our list is ready," Raut said.

Taking a swipe at the BJP over its victory in the Haryana assembly elections, Raut said the saffron party "should introspect on how it won." "It should share the formula, like the EVM," he said, referring to the allegations of Opposition parties that the voting machines could be tampered with.

Congress lost in Haryana by a margin of only 0.6 per cent, and the evidence furnished by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi about irregularities in the EVMs should be considered seriously, Raut said.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)