Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
SRINAGAR—Ahead of the assembly election, Congress suffered a major setback when its J&K chief ministerial candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad quit the party
The resignation came days after J&K Pradesh Congress Committee appointed Viqar Rasool as the new president. Azad was named chairman of the Congress campaign committee. Seemingly upset, he resigned from the committee.
Once considered a loyal Congressman, Azad’s resignation came as a shock for the party. His resignation triggered a flurry of activities in the party with his loyalists too putting in their papers. They included GM. Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Muhammad Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani, and Choudhary Muhammad Akram.
Azad joined Congress in the mid-1970s and held many important positions in the party and the government. He has been a minister in almost every Congress government at the Centre. Be it Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, or Dr. Manmohan Singh. Since 1980, Azad was the general secretary of AICC under every party president He was the chief minister of J&K from 2005 to 2008.
“You are aware that I had an extremely close relationship with your family from late Indira Gandhi, late Sanjay Gandhi onwards including your late husband. In that spirit, I also have great personal regard for your personal trials and tribulations which would always continue. Some of my other colleagues and I will now persevere to perpetuate the ideals for which we have dedicated our entire adult lives outside the formal fold of the Indian National Congress,” Azad said in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.
If sources are to be believed, Azad is all set to float a new political party next month. This would be the second new political party in Jammu and Kashmir after August 5, 2019. Earlier in 2020, expelled PDP leader Syed Altaf Bukhari floated Apni Party.
Azad’s support base in Kashmir has already taken a hit after August 5, 2019, when the Modi government stripped J&K of special status. People feel he did not play the role which he was expected of.
Except for his statement in Rajya Sabha, he did not call for restoring Article 370 forcefully. He has been focusing on restoring statehood and conveniently skipping the broader issue of special status. Even when he retired from Rajya Sabha, PM Modi paid him a moving tribute. Modi addressed the parliament with teary eyes. Later, the Centre awarded him with Padma Bhusan despite the fact that the BJP was pursuing the agenda of Congress-Mukt Bharat.
Like other party leaders, Azad hit out at Rahul Gandhi after quitting the party. When he was in Congress, he was showering every praise in his dictionary on Rahul Gandhi.
“At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organization. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC sitting at 24 Akbar Road,” he said.
“However, unfortunately after the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as Vice President by you, the entire Consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him,” he added.
Azad’s leaving Congress is considered a boon for BJP in J&K. Azad has some support in the Muslim-dominated Chenab valley of Jammu. Last time, BJP won most of the Muslim majority seats because all parties filed candidates which divided Muslim votes and consolidated Hindu votes. This time, the parties realized the mistake and were planning to consolidate Muslim votes. However, Azad’s leaving Congress and floating his own party will again split Muslim votes.
“It is most unfortunate that this has happened at a time when Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and the entire party organization are involved in fighting the BJP on public issues of mehangai, berozgaari, and polarization and when final preparations are being made for the Mehangai par Hallo Bol rally in New Delhi on Sept 4th and for the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari on Sept 7th,” said chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh.
