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Priyanka Chaturvedi quits as Congress spokesperson, joins Shiv Sena

Congress national spokesperson and convenor of the party's media cell, Priyanka Chaturvedi, resigned from the party on Thursday.

After quitting all the posts in the party, Chaturvedi sent her resignation to the Congress top brass. She also changed the introduction in her Twitter account, where she had previously clearly mentioned earlier the posts she held in the party. 

Minutes after she made her resignation letter public, Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena said that Chaturvedi will join his political quarter where she joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of the party president Uddhav Thackeray.

She was miffed at the reinstatement of some party workers in Uttar Pradesh who had threatened her and misbehaved with her during a press conference in Mathura a few days ago.

The party, which had suspended those workers, reinstated them on April 15. The Congress letter said that the party leaders were suspended following Chaturvedi's complaint. The letter added that the Uttar Pradesh Congress decided to grant relief to the leaders and reinstate them following an intervention by Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh West.

During the press conference, the Congress leaders had "misbehaved" with Priyanka Chaturvedi, prompting her to file a complaint with the party, the letter said.

The letter added that the Congress had suspended the leaders following the complaint but had now decided to reinstate them.

In her resignationation letter addressed to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, she said, "In the past weeks certain things have convinced me that my services are not valued in the organisation and that I have reached the end of the road. At the same time I also feel that more time that I spend in the organisation will be at the cost of my own self respect and dignity."

Priyanka Chaturvedi went on to say, "What saddens me is that despite the safety, dignity, empowerment of women being promoted by the party and has been your call to action the same is not reflected in the action of some of the members of the party. A serious incident and misbehaviour against me by certain party members while I was on official duty for the party has been ignored under the guise of all hands needed for elections. This indignity to me has been final factor to convince me to move on and focus on other things outside INC."

Earlier, Chaturvedi tweeted: “Deeply saddened that lumpen goons get preference in @incindia over those who have given their sweat and blood,” Chaturvedi said while retweeting the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee letter suspending action against the accused. “Having faced brickbats and abuse across board for the party but yet those who threatened me within the party getting away with not even a rap on their knuckles is unfortunate.”

Source: Business Standard