Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is one of the most influential politicians in Jammu and Kashmir, turned in his resignation from all the posts in the Congress party, as well as its primary membership earlier today, prompting party leaders to slam him for his move.
After he submitted an explosive resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi which talked about the “childish behavior” of Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a jibe at him for “betraying” the party.
Taking to Twitter, Ramesh said, "A man who has been treated with the greatest respect by the Congress leadership has betrayed it by his vicious personal attacks which reveals his true character. GNA’s DNA has been modi-fied.”
This jibe came shortly after Ghulam Nabi Azad stepped down from all posts of the Congress party, saying that Rahul Gandhi’s leadership has “demolished the consultative mechanism” of the party.
Congress leader Pawan Khera also hit out at the Jammu and Kashmir leader, saying, “When he was taking all the decisions, he proudly belonged to the core group. Now, when others are taking decisions, he labels them as sycophants. The challenges faced by Congress today are because of leaders like him.”
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".
"The entire organisational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organization. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC sitting in 24 Akbar Road," Azad wrote.
This comes just as Jammu and Kashmir are headed towards their first elections since the scrapping of Article 370, removing its special status in India. The polls are set to take place in 2023, and the exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad can seriously hamper the chances of the Congress party in the Union Territory.
(With ANI inputs)
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