Coming down heavily on those who failed to toe the party line, Congress today "expelled permanently" seven "rebel candidates" for refusing to withdraw from the poll race even after they were "warned" by state party president Amarinder Singh.
"They have been expelled permanently from the primary membership of the party for anti-party activities with immediate effect," a party release issued here tonight said.
Those expelled include Ashok Sharma, Gurbinder Singh Atwal, Jagmeet Singh Sahota, Hemraj Aggarwal, Manjit Singh Mann, Amarjit Singh Gharu and Rajinder Deepa.
Amarinder had on Sunday issued a final ultimatum to the "rebel candidates" who continued to defy the party diktat to withdraw their candidature or retire from the poll fray.
"The rebels were given time till 5 PM on Tuesday to step down in favour of the Congress candidates in their respective constituencies," the release said.
While several "rebel candidates" had earlier been persuaded by the party leadership to take back their nominations before the last date set up by the Election Commission, a handful of them remained defiant and did not withdraw their papers, it said.
"They were on Sunday given another 48 hours to leave the race to official Congress candidates. However, these seven party members failed to toe the party line within the deadline," the statement said.
The PPCC chief said it was important to send out a "strong message" that the party would not tolerate such "rebellion" and those going against the high command's decision would have to pay for it.
He made it clear that the expulsion of the seven members was "permanent" and they would not be taken back into the party under any circumstances.
Amarinder reiterated that the candidates selected for tickets by the party leadership were chosen for their winnability and those who had withdrawn in favour of the officially nominated candidates would be accommodated in key positions if the Congress forms the government in the state after February 4 assembly polls.
