The Congress in Maharashtra has suspended former MLA Ashish Deshmukh from its primary membership for his public statements against the party leadership in the state.

A party notice, which announced the disciplinary action against the former legislator, said charges levelled against Deshmukh are serious in nature.

Deshmukh is a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Katol in Nagpur who later joined the Congress. He was the Congress nominee against BJP leader and now Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from the Nagpur South West seat in the 2019 Assembly polls.

He is the son of former state Congress chief Ranjit Deshmukh.

On Wednesday, he was issued a show-cause notice by the state Congress's disciplinary action committee headed by former CM Prithviraj Chavan for his comments that MPCC president Nana Patole receives money from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Deshmukh also said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the OBC community over his "Modi surname" remarks.

The notice, issued to the former MLA after a meeting of the disciplinary committee, sought a reply from him in three days as to why he shouldn't be expelled from the primary membership of the Congress.

The notice said since charges levelled against Deshmukh are serious in nature, he has been suspended from the primary membership of the Congress till further proceedings and final disposal of the matter.

In January this year, Deshmukh had written a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge seeking removal of Patole from his post, saying the Opposition party's condition in Maharashtra was “alarming” and there was a need to change the state unit president.

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