Ghulam Nabi Azad Resigns From Congress, Quits From All Positions Including Primary Membership

Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Congress leader, resigns from all of his positions, including his primary membership in the Congress Party.

Ghulam Nabi Azad. (Image Source: File Photo)

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from all positions including primary membership of Congress Party, news agency ANI reported. 

This happened days after Azad resigned from the Jammu and Kashmir Congress' political affairs committee and the chairmanship of the campaign committee shortly after being appointed.

Blaming Rahul Gandhi for Congress's downfall, Azad in a letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi stated: "Unfortunately, after the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as the Vice President by you, the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him."

"All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started runing the affairs of the party," he added. 

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad severs all ties with Congress Party pic.twitter.com/RuVvRqGSj5

— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2022

Highlighting August 2020 appeal by 23 Congress leaders, Azad stated: "In August 2020, when I and 22 other senior colleague including former Union Ministers and Chief Ministers wrote to you to flag the abysmal drift in the party the "coterie" choose to unleash its sycophants on us and got us attacked, vilified and humiliated in the most crude manner possible."

"Infact, on the direction of the coterie that runs the AICC today my mock funeral possession was taken out in Jammu. Those who committed indiscipline were feted in Delhi by the General Secretaries of the AICC and Rahul Gandhi personally," he added. 

Recalling the time when he first joined INC, Azad stated: "I joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu and Kashmir in mid 1970s when it was still a taboo to be associated with the party given its chequered history in the state from 8th August 1953 onwards - the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah being the nadir of its political myopia."

Azad, the leader of the rebel G-23, was passed up for candidacy to the Upper House by the party.