New Delhi: Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad quit the Congress party on Friday. He resigned from all party posts and membership and sent his resignation letter to interim president Sonia Gandhi.
In his five-page resignation letter, he wrote, “Unfortunately, when Rahul Gandhi entered the party and in January 2013, when you made him the party’s vice-president, he completely destroyed the party’s advisory system.”
Azad said that after Rahul’s entry, all senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and a new group of inexperienced sycophants emerged and started running the party.
According to party sources, Azad was angry with the decisions of the high command for several days. On August 16, the Congress had made Azad the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Campaign Committee, but Azad resigned from the post two hours after he was made the president. Azad had said that this is my demotion.
The 73-year-old Azad was trying to take over the reins of the state Congress at the last stage of his politics, but the central leadership gave this responsibility to 47-year-old Vikar Rasool Wani instead. Wani Ghulam is very close to Nabi Azad. He has been an MLA from Banihal. Azad did not like this decision. It is being said that the Congress leadership is tearing down leaders close to Azad and Azad is upset with it.
There was a tussle even before the Congress high command, the matter was resolved
This is not the first time that Ghulam Nabi Azad is out of Sonia Gandhi’s good list. Even after he was removed from the post of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister in 2008, he had a tussle with the Congress high command. However, after a dispute in the Andhra Pradesh Congress in 2009, the high command gave Azad the responsibility of solving the problem. After this, he again joined the good list and became a minister at the Centre. According to sources, this time his agreement with the Congress high command could not be reached, due to which he resigned.
Ghulam Nabi Azad was part of G-23 group
Ghulam Nabi was also part of the G23 group apart from the Azad Party, which advocated many major changes in the party. In the midst of all those activities, this resignation has raised questions on Ghulam Nabi Azad and his relationship with the Congress. The Center has honored Ghulam Nabi Azad with the Padma Bhushan award this year.
Meanwhile, Azad’s term of Rajya Sabha ended on 15 February 2021. After that he hoped that he could be sent to Rajya Sabha from some other state, but Congress did not send him to Rajya Sabha. PM Narendra Modi became emotional while bidding him farewell on the day Azad’s tenure ended.
In 2021, the Modi government gave the Padma Bhushan to Ghulam Nabi Azad. Many Congress leaders did not like this. The leaders had suggested that Azad should not take this honour.