The apology rendered by laksar MlA Sanjay Gupta for his ‘Beef Biryani’ statement against the Chief Minister might help him to avoid a harsh disciplinary action. It is learnt that the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party which was in favour of strict action against the MlA for his outburst earlier is now veering round to a ‘forgive and forget’ stance in the aftermath of the apology.
Gupta on Sunday had said that he has dispatched the reply of the show cause notice issued by the party to the State party General Secretary Naresh Bansal. He had further said that he had expressed regret over his statement. Gupta had added that being a disciplined soldier of the party, he had acknowledged his fault. Gupta had also promised that such a thing would not repeat in future.
The party had earlier authorised its State president Ajay Bhatt to take appropriate action on the issue. Incidentally, Gupta is the third legislator to whom the saffron party has issued show cause notice. Party had slapped notice on Khanpur MlA Pranav Singh Champion after his utterances against party leadership on inclusion of the brother of the former MlA Mohammad Shahzad in the district panchayat coordination committee. Similarly, a notice had been served to Rudrapur MlA Rajkumar Thukral for his alleged misbehaviour with a woman. Interestingly, the party had refrained from taking any action against both of them following the receipt of their explanation.
It is now appearing increasingly possible that Gupta too would escape punishment on his ‘Beef Biryani’ statement which created a flutter in the State’s political circles as he had made the chief minister his target for ignoring the party MlAs and befriending those who are critical of the party’s ideological stance.
The issue
Sanjay Gupta took exception to chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and some of his cabinet colleagues attending the marriage ceremony of the son of a former MlA Mohammad Shahzad.
His statement that CM had time to attend the ceremony at Shahzad’s residence where beef Biryani was served while he had no time to hear out the party MlAs sparked a row , resulting in the state BJP brass serving a show cause notice to the lawmaker.