Bathinda, May 16 -- The Punjab Congress has expelled eight councillors of the Bathinda municipal corporation for supporting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) resolution of removing senior Congressman Ashok Kumar from the post of senior deputy mayor on May 2. The ousted councillors are Suresh Kumar of ward 22, Kamaljeet Kaur of ward 25, Neha ward 33, Mamta Saini ward 38, Pushpa Rani ward 39, Kulwinder Kaur ward 41, Raj Rani ward 45, and Kamlesh Mehra ward 49. District Congress president Rajan Garg said after the councillors failed to respond to a notice, Congress disciplinary action committee chairperson Avtar Henry decided to expel them for five years for anti-party activities. The expulsion notice categorically mentioned that the councillors had supported the no-confidence motion pushed by AAP, despite direct appeals against it, made by the Congress' senior leadership. In the 50-member House, the Congress had won 43 seats in the 2021 elections but slowly lost its strength. In the no-confidence motion on May 2, a total of 30 councillors had voted against Ashok Kumar while only 10 voted in his favour. Ten councillors had skipped the meeting of the house. The Congress councillors who voted against Kumar are said to be close to Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Manpreet Badal, who had quit the grand old party in 2023....