Referring to Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation from Congress as an internal matter of the party, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that the situation in Congress is a matter of grave concern and top leadership should introspect over it.
“It is an internal matter of Congress. It is important to follow democratic principles in a political party. The party’s people should be worried if it is not being followed,” Singh said. Azad had cited the “immaturity” of Rahul Gandhi in his resignation letter to the Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday and blamed him for “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the party.
In a hard-hitting 5 page note to party interim president Sonia Gandhi, Azad claimed that a coterie runs the party while she was just a nominal head and all the major decisions were taken by “Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs”
Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Azad wrote, “Since the 2019 elections the situation in the party has only worsened. After. Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a ‘huff’ and not before insulting all the senior Party functionaries who have given their lives to the party in a meeting of the extended Working Committee, you took over as interim President. A position that you have continue to hold even today for the past three years.”
Azad said that it was “worse still the ‘remote control model’ that demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government now got applied to the Indian National Congress.”
Following Azad’s resignation, six more Congress MLAs– RS Chib, GM Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohd Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhary Mohd Akram also quit the party on the same day.
Meanwhile, a day after tendering his resignation from all party posts in J-K, several political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir met Azad, who is planning to launch a new national party, in the national capital.
The meeting came within 24 hours of Azad’s resignation from all posts in Congress and it holds importance as the polls in the valley are likely to be held later this year.
“Under the leadership of Azad ji we will launch a national party and the work will begin from Jammu and Kashmir. Azad ji will go to J&K and will form an alliance with like-minded parties and leaders. All the criticism coming Azad Ji’s way will be answered by winning elections,” ex- Congress leader Salman Nizami had earlier announced.
The decision to launch a new national party came just hours after the veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, in a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi resigned from all positions of the Congress party including the primary membership.
Reactions from numerous political leaders were also poured in after his sudden resignation.
