Lucknow, Nov 21 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh Congress has issued a show cause notice to 11 senior party leaders who recently held a meeting and expressed concern over the manner in which the veterans were being sidelined in the party.

The senior leaders have been asked to reply to their notices within 24 hours.

The notice has been issued by former legislator Ajay Rai, member of the disciplinary committee on the directives of party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and state party President Ajay Kumar Lallu.

According to the official statement, the leaders who have been issued notice include former MP Santosh Singh, Haji Siraj Mehndi, former ministers Ram Krishna Dwiwedi and Satyadev Tripathi, Rajendra Singh Solanki, Bhoodar Narain Misra, Hafiz Mohd Umar, Vinod Chaudhary, Nek Chandra Pandey, Swayam Prakash Goswami and Sanjiv Singh.

One of the senior leaders who have been served notice, when contacted, said: "I have yet to receive the notice but this shows which way the Congress and its new leadership is going. We wanted to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi and apprise her of the growing dissatisfaction in the party but we have been served a notice instead."