"Was Insulted Continuously": Congress Leader's Charge A Day After Quitting

Radhika Khera, who quit the Congress, on Monday alleged that the party leaders from Chhattisgarh misbehaved with her and locked her in a room, adding that she was punished for being a "Ram bhakt".

Ms Khera, who was an All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson, resigned from the Congress on Sunday, alleging a conspiracy against her. She had raised the issue with the party leaders but no action was taken, she claimed.

"I could not realise a conspiracy was being hatched against me. I was the media in-charge for the Lok Sabha elections. I was being insulted continuously...

"During Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the Chhattisgarh media chairman, Sushil Anand Shukla, offered me alcohol. There was another person with him, Dhananjay Thakur. Two other women who worked in the media department were with me," Ms Khera said at a press conference here.

"We were in our room in Korba. I was called repeatedly and asked what kind of alcohol I wanted.

"The media chairman would knock on my door after getting drunk. I had informed Sachin Pilot ji, the state in-charge. Jairam Ramesh to Pawan Khera, I told everyone how they behaved with me," she said.

She said she could not realise that she was being ignored because she was not matching with the anti-Hindu ideology of the party. It crossed all limits when at the headquarters of the Chhattisgarh Congress in Raipur, Shukla misbehaved with her and verbally abused her, alleged.

Radhika Khera said she was also locked in the room and verbally abused.

"I am being punished for being a Ram Bhakt. Did my going to the Ram temple hurt the party so much? I was told not to take the name of Ram during the Chhattisgarh polls. I was told I talked of Hindu religion too much," she said.

Chhattisgarh Congress president Deepak Baij, meanwhile, said Ms Khera was speaking the language of the BJP, and questioned why she rushed with her resignation, even as he maintained it was her personal decision.

"Quitting the party is her personal decision. A probe was going on in the party and a decision was pending. She should not have rushed. She had many options, but (she) rushed to make a decision, levelling allegations... She should have waited," he said.

Asked about her remarks on being punished for talking about the Hindu religion, he said, "The issue was something else. It is being given a different angle now. Linking it with religion is a pre-planning. She is speaking the language of the BJP." Mr Baij also said the leaders mentioned by Ms Khera might not have picked her call as they are busy with elections.

Ms Khera claimed that the criticism over her visit to Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya led to the denial of justice to her in the incident that happened at the Chhattisgarh Congress office.

Notably, an argument took place between Radhika Khera and Mr Shukla on April 30 in the party office in Raipur over the visit of senior leader Pawan Khera the next day, the party sources said.

A video purportedly of Radhika Khera had gone viral in which she claimed that she was insulted.

In her resignation letter, she stated that it is an established truth since ancient times that those who support religion face opposition.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)