AICC sacks DCC President over Sonia poster issue

New Delhi, June 22: A day after the appearance of a poster in Moradabad showing party President Sonia Gandhi as Goddess Durga, the All India Congress Committee today sacked Party's District President Ajay Saraswat Soni in connection with the incident.

"He has been relieved from the post with immediate effect," AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said here today.

Ms Gandhi strongly condemned the poster, and directed the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee to inquire into the matter and identify the person or persons responsible for the same.

She also asked the UPCC to expel them from the party if they are found to be Congressmen.

"In case, the persons do not belong to the Congress, we will take steps to initiate legal proceedings against the perpetrators," Mr Dwivedi said.

Soni's removal from the DCC President post came in the wake of reports that the controversial picture was hanging in his office.

The Goddess' eight arms in the impugned poster are labelled after the party's frontal organisations, like Youth Congress, Mahila Congress, Sewa Dal and so on.

Ms Gandhi is shown as wearing a tiara labelled "dharma nirmaan" and a sash which reads "Akhil Bharatiya Congress." To complete the picture, the demon she is slaying carries the labels 'atankwad' (terrorism) and 'bhrashtachar' (corruption).

Initial reports suggested that a local printer prepared the poster for use during the recent state Assembly election.

However, the party had not used the material, fearing the Election Commission's wrath. But the DCC president, in an apparent bid to demonstrate his loyalty to the party chief, displayed a sample poster in his office which caught the media's attention.

UNI