Azad's exit won't have major impact on Congress in J-K: Party sources

The Congress is not in any trouble with Ghulam Nabi Azad's exit, however, there could be some impact on a few seats in the Chenab Valley and surrounding areas in the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, party sources said.

This comes as political activity in J-K has picked up pace in anticipation of Assembly polls.

The party alleged that Azad never allowed any leader to grow in Jammu and Kashmir while adding that the people who left the party because of Azad, will rejoin the party soon.

Party sources said that Azad had been planning to leave Congress for the last two years, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he delayed taking the decision.

"In the last seven-eight years, Azad did not participate in any AICC programme held in Jammu and Kashmir. The people who left the party because of Azad will rejoin the party soon. Azad had been planning to leave the Congress party for two years, but due to Covid, there was a delay in taking the decision. Ghulam Nabi Azad's nexus is with the BJP and Azad is also getting the support of central agencies in the state," the sources alleged.

It further said that Azad is part of a bigger conspiracy, speaking on someone else's script adding that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will soon know for whom he is working.

Talking about these big allegations, a source working for the Jammu and Kashmir unit of Congress said that the party is not in any trouble with Azad's exit. However, there could be some impact on a few seats in the Chenab Valley and surrounding areas.

"The strategy of the Congress is clear, the state president and working president will go to all the assembly seats in the state and a large number of people will join the Congress party. Those of the Congress party who used to benefit from Azad have gone and will go further. People like former Deputy Chief Ministers Tarachand and Manohar Lal, who used to come to the Congress till a day before Azad left the party and said that we will explain to Azad Saheb, also left the party," the sources said.

Speaking on the allegations levelled by Azad on the Congress, the source said that Azad's statement that the party did not consider the opinion of the state committees is completely wrong.

"Rahul Gandhi himself talked to Azad to find out what problem he has with the Congress but Ghulam Nabi Azad never gave a clear answer," the source said.

The Congress party was expecting that Azad would say something on the Bilkis Bano issue, but he kept quiet which made the party uncomfortable.

Talking about the regional parties with which the Congress will form an alliance for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said that the Congress will look into the possibilities of an alliance with the National Conference.

Former Union Minister Azad, who quit the Congress last week and has decided to float a political party and will hold a public meeting on September 4 at Sainik Colony in Jammu.

This will be his first meeting since he snapped his nearly 50-year-long association with Congress.

Azad has said that he will launch a new party soon and the first unit will be formed in Jammu and Kashmir in view of impending assembly polls. Azad was Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008.

With Azad signalling that he will float a new party, several leaders have resigned from the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand is among 64 leaders who have resigned from the Congress.

In an indication of his political stock even as he has resigned from Congress, three party leaders who are members of Group of 23 met him at his residence in the national capital on Tuesday. Azad was also a member of G-23.

In his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi, Azad had targeted party leadership, particularly Rahul Gandhi, over the way the party has been run in the past nearly nine years.

In the hard-hitting five-page letter, Azad had claimed that a coterie runs the party while Sonia Gandhi was just "a nominal head" and all the major decisions were taken by "Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs".

Azad had said he was submitting his resignation with "great regret and an extremely leaden heart" and severing his about the 50-year association with the Congress. He was earlier Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

Recounting his long association with the Congress, Azad had said the situation in the party has reached a point of "no return."

"Unfortunately, the situation in the Congress party has reached such a point of no return that now 'proxies' are being propped up to take over the leadership of the party. This experiment is doomed to fail because the party has been so comprehensively destroyed that situation has become irretrievable. Moreover, the 'chosen one' would be nothing more than a puppet on a string," he said.

While Azad took potshots at Sonia Gandhi in the letter, his sharpest attack was on Rahul Gandhi and he described the Wayand MP as "non-serious individual" and "immature".

( With inputs from ANI )