Congress sets up probe after leader who joined BJP is elected Jabalpur youth gen secy

Harshit Singhai, a Scindia loyalist, says he had filed his nomination for long-delayed election 3 years ago, and informed Congress in March that he quit the party.

Representational image of Congress flags | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Congress formed a disciplinary action committee Tuesday to look into a major goof-up in the Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress elections. The eight-member committee will be headed by Bharat Singh, a state leader.

The Congress was left red-faced when it ended up electing a general secretary who had left the party for the BJP nine months ago with Jyotiraditya Scindia and other leaders.

The MP Youth Congress’ organisational elections ended Friday, and Harshit Singhai won by 12 votes from the Jabalpur district. But Singhai, a Scindia loyalist, had quit the Congress with him in March, and this apparently did not reflect on the party’s database.

Singhai himself was shocked

Singhai’s election came as a shock not only to the Congress but to the leader himself. He learnt about it when he began receiving congratulatory messages. Singhai said he had filed his nomination three years ago, but the elections kept getting delayed.

“I filed my nomination back in 2017, but the elections kept getting delayed for one reason or another. When I quit the party in March, I informed the authorities that my name should be removed from the list, but it never got removed. I was given an email ID and I wrote to them; I even called up a few days before the elections asking them to remove my name, but it never got removed,” Singhai told ThePrint.

Singhai said he is amused that he won the election despite not campaigning even once. “My supporters saw my name and voted for me, but the Congress party should have been more careful,” he said.

Congress says he didn’t inform about departure

The Congress, however, denied that Singhai ever informed it about his departure.

“We received no such correspondence from him. Maybe he waited till the elections are over to bring this up,” said Rashmi Pawar, state secretary, Madhya Pradesh Congress.

Pawar said the eight-member committee will now look into the issue.

“They will see if the fault was of any district Youth Congress authority, or is a deliberate strategy from the BJP to cause us embarrassment,” she said.