Sonia Gandhi removes Sanjay Jha from Congress spokesperson post. (File)

Sanjay Jha dropped, Sanjay Jha article: Days after Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha’s column critical of the party leadership, party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday removed him from the post. In a statement on Wednesday evening, the party said that Sanjay Jha has been dropped as the AICC spokesperson with immediate effect.

“Congress president has also approved that Sanjay Jha be dropped as AICC spokesperson with immediate effect,” the statement said.

The Congress president also approved the appointment of Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti as national media panelists for the party.

According to reports, Sanjay Jha’s recent remarks against the party leadership didn’t go down well with Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka. Hours before he was dropped, Sanjay had tweeted on the Ladakh face-off.

“This is a time for great mature political consensus within India in responding to China’s dangerous aggression. I don’t care if Mr Modi made several outrageous rhetorical comments against our Congress/UPA government in the past. We must rise. Let’s be different. Let’s be one,” he tweeted.

His tweet is also believed to have irked the Congress leadership that took a different stand on the matter and has been attacking PM Narendra Modi over the incident that left 20 Indian soldiers dead in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Galwan valley in Ladakh.

Earlier, Jha had openly expressed displeasure over the functioning of the Congress leadership and went on to say that his party lacks internal democracy and that decision-making powers are limited to Delhi. He had also alleged that the party high command did not consult its spokesperson before banning them from participating in TV debates last year.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Malviya has reacted to the development saying, “Sanjay Jha and Rajeev Gowda kind of started together with ‘humaracongress’ portal. Gowda, son of a former Congressman, got a RS term before being overlooked but Sanjay Jha, besides standing in for the Congress at the worst of its times, gets the boot for just writing an article!”