india

Updated: Aug 13, 2019 21:50 IST

Two months after he resigned from chief minister Jai Ram Thakur’s cabinet , Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday ousted former power minister Anil Sharma from the party.

“No one from Sukh Ram’s family is member of the BJP,” state party chief Satpal Singh Satti said. However, Sharma will continue to be member of the legislative assembly.

Sharma had quit the Jai Ram Thakur cabinet, days after the Congress named his son Ashray Sharma as its candidate from Mandi Lok Sabha segment. He, however, did not resign from the BJP nor as a member of the legislative assembly.

Section of BJP leaders had been constantly building pressure on leadership to throw Sharma out from party after he had refused to campaign in favour of BJP candidate sitting MP Ramswroop Sharma and against Congress candidate, his son Ashray Sharma in Mandi.

The four-time MLA was a minister during the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress governments in 1993 and 2012 but he along with his father Sukh Ram joined the BJP in October 2017, just before the last Assembly elections.

His son Aashray was seeking a BJP ticket from Mandi but the BJP preferred to renominate sitting MP Ramswroop Sharma.Subsequently, Ashray along with his grandfather rejoined Congress on March 25 and the Congress fielded him from Mandi.

Sharma, after resigning from the cabinet, had moved to MLA flat at metropole. He was first elected to Vidhan Sabha in 1993, 2007, 2012 and 2017 and also remained a member in Rajya Sabha in 1998.