Ghulam Nabi Azad had quit the Congress party on Friday calling Rahul Gandhi immature and accusing him of “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the party.
New Delhi: Moments after the resignation of veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad from all party posts, including the primary membership, five leaders from Jammu and Kashmir unit of the party, who are also ex-MLAs, stepped down from the party posts. The leaders submitted their resignation letters in solidarity with Azad who hails from the state.
The five leaders — Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohammad Amin Bhatt, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Chaudhary Akram Mohammad — have resigned from primary membership of the party in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Another Congress leader Salman Nizami also announced to leave the party in support of Azad.
The leaders, in a joint statement, said, “We the following leaders also the ex-ministers of the dissolved Jammu and Kashmir state assembly hereby resign from all positions holding in the Congress Party and also resign from the primary membership of the party is support of Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad.”
Salman Nizami tweeted, “I disassociate myself from the Congress Party, in support of my leader Ghulam Nabi Azad Sahib. I gave my blood, sweat & toil to Congress. Faced slander & detention for standing up for ideals of the party. And how does Cong treat us? Humiliated and disrespected. The J & K election committee formed, but we were not even consulted. Our loyalty has been strangled by opportunists who have taken over the Congress.”
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Azad quit the Congress party on Friday calling Rahul Gandhi immature and accusing him of “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the party.
Earlier, the party had dropped Ghulam Nabi Azad’s close associate Ghulam Ahmed Mir from the president of Jammu and Kashmir Congress. Sources said that Azad was not happy after the stepping down of his close aide from chief of the party’s state unit.
Azad was one of the leading members of the G-23, the group of dissenters, who had written to acting party president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 calling for a complete overhaul of the organisation and demanded a full-time president.
On August 17, Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the post of chairman of Congress Committee of the state. Azad, former Chief Minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, stepped down from the post hours after his appointment by central leadership of the party.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has held many key positions in the past in Centre and erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state. He has served as Union Minister in the Centre earlier.
