Highlights
- Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad might announce his own party in J&K today.
- He addresses his first rally since quitting Congress, in Jammu's Sainik Colony today.
- He has already stated that he would float his own party in Jammu and Kashmir soon.
Ghulam Nabi Azad news: Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad addressed a rally in Jammu's Sainik Colony today, his first after he resigned from the Congress party. During the address, he bashed Congress several times, listing out reasons for its downfall. "People from Congress now go to jail in buses, they call DGP, Commissioners, get their name written & leave within an hour. That is the reason Congress has been unable to grow," he said. His rally coincided with Rahul Gandhi's address at 'Mehngai par Halla Bol' event in the national capital.
"Congress was made by us by our blood, not by computers, not by twitter. People are trying to defame us but their reach is limited to computers and tweets. That is the reason Congress is nowhere to be seen on the ground," he added.
Azad has said his resignation letter was just a "tip of the iceberg", indicating that he would step up his attack on the Gandhis in the coming days. He has already stated that he would float his own party in Jammu and Kashmir soon, where assembly elections are due to be announced.
Meanwhile, spate of resignations was seen in the Jammu and Kashmir Congress. Sixty-four more leaders, including former deputy chief minister Tara Chand, tendered their resignation and joined the Ghulam Nabi Azad camp, leaving the unit of the national party in the Union Territory in tatters.
The former Union minister had targeted Rahul Gandhi in his five-page resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi last Friday. Azad had launched a stinging attack on Rahul Gandhi describing him as "immature" and "childish" and accusing the leadership of "foisting a non-serious individual" at the helm of the party.
Azad, 73, who ended his nearly five-decade association with the Congress, also attacked party chief Sonia Gandhi for applying the "remote control model that demolished the institutional integrity of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government" to the party. He also reminded Sonia Gandhi that she was just a "nominal figurehead" and all the important decisions were being taken by Rahul Gandhi or "rather worse his security guards and PAs".
Azad slammed Rahul Gandhi's conduct within the party and singled out his action of tearing up a government ordinance in "full glare" of the media. "One of the most glaring examples of this immaturity was the tearing up of a government ordinance in the full glare of the media by Shri Rahul Gandhi," he said.
"The said ordinance was incubated in the Congress Core Group and subsequently unanimously approved by the Union Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister of India and duly approved even by the President of India.
(With agency inputs)
