Bhopal: The Congress has expelled veteran leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi for campaigning for his son, a Samajwadi Party candidate, in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

Chaturvedi’s association with the Congress spans over several decades. He was elected to Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and has been a part of various parliamentary committees apart from holding several ministries.

The senior Congress leader was in the party’s coordination committee led by Digvijaya Singh for forging unity among the cadre ahead of assembly polls but he finally ended up as a dissident himself, which may have been a reason behind his being dismissed from the party.

Chaturvedi was reportedly lobbying for a ticket for his son Nitin but after the Congress denied it, Nitin filed his nomination from Rajnagar seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket. Chaturvedi then came out in open support of his son and dared his party to expel him if they wanted to.

Chaturvedi has been campaigning for his son and speculations were rife that the party would act against him. He had maintained that he neither left the Congress nor the ideology, but could not tolerate mistakes being done by the party over the last 15 years. The veteran leader was earlier named among the party’s star campaigners for assembly polls.

Congress had chosen three-time MLA Vikram Singh over Nitin Chaturvedi at the last moment. The party has expelled 16 leaders after they failed to withdraw nomination on the last day for the same. ​