Margaret Alva resigns as AICC general secretary

AICC general secretary Margaret Alva, whose allegations of "sale" of party tickets in the Karnataka Assembly polls created a row, has resigned from her post.

AICC general secretary Margaret Alva, whose allegations of "sale" of party tickets in the Karnataka Assembly polls created a row, has resigned from her post.

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She met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday night soon after appearing before the Disciplinary Action Committee chairman A K Antony.

Alva, who is in charge of party affairs in several states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and poll-bound Mizoram, is expected to send her formal resignation to Gandhi today, sources said.

The general secretary, who has been sulking over denial of election ticket to her son Nivedith in Karnataka recently, had alleged that "different yardsticks" were being adopted in deciding party nominations for upcoming elections in six states.

She was, however, snubbed by the AICC which rejected the charges of sale of tickets and ruled out any probe in the matter, besides maintaining that "no wrong-doing" had happened in the distribution of tickets in the state.

The party High Command had also disapproved of her action of going to the media over the issue.

"Were my son and Jaffer Sharief's grandson anti-national, terrorists or smugglers?" Alva had asked.

Alva has also been unhappy over the appointment of her bete noire R V Deshpande as Karnataka PCC chief recently.