The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee’s disciplinary committee has issued show-cause notices to its 29 leaders for allegedly taking part in a September 8 protest against the state Congress leadership near the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office in New Delhi, further intensifying differences within the party following its poor showing in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.

The notices, issued by disciplinary committee chairman Kapildev Prasad Yadav, accuse the leaders of “anti-party activities” and indiscipline. The committee said their active participation in the protest “violated the party’s policy, discipline and directions and amounted to serious indiscipline”.

The leaders have been given 72 hours from receipt of the notices to submit written explanations to the disciplinary committee and state why action should not be taken against them. The committee said: “It would be free to initiate unilateral disciplinary action under party rules if replies were not received within the stipulated period or were found unsatisfactory”.

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Among those served notices are former MLAs Anil Singh and Poonam Devi, former Siwan district Congress president Vidhushekhar Pandey, former West Champaran district president Bharat Bhushan Dubey, former Madhepura district president Satyendra Yadav and former Aurangabad district president Mrityunjay Singh.

The action follows an alleged demonstration by these leaders and some other party workers against the Bihar Congress leadership on September 8. Before the protest, a group of disgruntled leaders had announced plans to demonstrate in Delhi seeking the removal of Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram and AICC in-charge for Bihar Krishna Allavaru, alleging corruption in the party organisation.

The latest action comes against the backdrop of an earlier dispute involving several leaders who had raised similar grievances. Some of them were among nine leaders expelled from the party for six years on February 18. They challenged their expulsions, arguing that the state unit could not remove them without approval from the AICC disciplinary committee.

The group had also sought the withdrawal of notices issued to 47 Congress leaders, including the nine expelled leaders, and alleged that the state unit had exceeded its powers. The leaders had also raised concerns about corruption in the party organisation with senior Congress leaders.

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They had claimed that they tried meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to present their case but were not given appointments. They also said some of the leaders met Kharge and senior leaders K C Venugopal and Ashok Gehlot at a hotel in Patna on November 3 last year, when, according to them, they were assured that their concerns would be heard after the Assembly elections.

The state leadership had rejected the criticism. The party had said the leaders planning the Delhi protest had already been expelled and that the state unit’s mandate from the central leadership was to strengthen the organisation. The expelled leaders had reportedly been asked by senior leaders in Delhi to discuss their grievances with the Bihar Congress chief but had declined.