Ghulam Nabi Azad resigns from all Congress party positions: Here’s a primer

In a five-page letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Azad said he does so with a “heavy heart”.

Published : Aug 26, 2022 12:41 IST

Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Ghulam Nabi Azad. | Photo Credit: PTI Photo/Kamal Kishore

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on August 26 resigned from all party positions, including its primary membership, delivering another blow to the embattled party that has seen a series of leaders leave it. In a five-page letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, he said he does so with a “heavy heart”.

The Congress, he said, has lost both the will and the ability under tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India. Before starting a ‘Bharat jodo yatra’, the leadership should have undertaken a ‘Congress jodo yatra’, the veteran leader said in his letter.

Also read: Congress: Lessons from history

This latest high-profile exit from the Congress party comes after the poll for the Congress president was deferred. Azad’s resignation follows a series of exits of senior leaders from the party, including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kapil Sibal, and Jitin Prasada, amongst others.

This development comes weeks after Azad resigned from the post of Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Congress campaign committee, just hours after he was given the appointment. According to sources, Azad had refused to assumed the post of Chairman of the campaign committee citing “health reasons” and had conveyed the same to the Congress leadership, thanking them for the responsibility.

Azad is one of the group of 23 leaders (popularly known as G-23) who were vocal about the need for a leadership change in the Congress and not being dependent on the Gandhi family for every major decision of the party.

Azad was associated with the party for five decades, during which time he served as Union Health Minister, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on different occasions.

In his letter to Sonia Gandhi, Azad questioned Rahul Gandhi’s competence to be a leader. “At the national level we have conceded the political space available to us to the BJP and State-level space to regional parties. This all happened because the leadership in the past eight years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the party,” he said.

Azad expressed his resentment of the “remote control” culture of the party. “Unfortunately, after the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013, when he was appointed vice president by you, the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him,” he added.

Also read: Congress in disorder

National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation from the Congress as a body blow to the party, saying it was “sad” and “scary” to see the grand old party implode.

“Long rumoured to be in the offing but a body blow to the Congress none the less. Perhaps the senior most leader to quit the party in recent times, his resignation letter makes for very painful reading,” he tweeted. “It’s sad, and quite scary, to see the grand old party of India implode,” he added.

(With inputs from Anando Bhakto)

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