In a major blow to the Congress party, veteran politician and former Jammu and Kashmir party chief Ghulam Nabi Azad turned in his resignation from all the posts in the party, including the primary membership in the Indian National Congress.
This comes just as Jammu and Kashmir is 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.
Meanwhile, the former J&K chief minister addressed a long resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, slamming the party and senior leader Rahul Gandhi for his “immaturity”, which “demolished” the mechanism of the party.
Here are a few quotes from Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation letter –
“…unfortunately after the entry of Shri Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013, when he was appointed as Vice President by you (Sonia Gandhi), the entire Consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him.”
“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. The said ordinance was incubated in the Congress Core Group and subsequently unanimously approved by the Union Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister. This ‘childish’ behavior completely subverted the authority of the Prime Minister and Government of India.”
“This one single action (of Rahul Gandhi) more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA Government in 2014, which was at the receiving end of a campaign of calumny and insinuation from a combination of the forces of the right-wing and certain unscrupulous corporate interests.”
“Since the 2019 elections, the situation in the party has only worsened. After Sh. Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a ‘huff and not before insulting all the senior Party functionaries who have given their lives to the party in a meeting of the extended Working Committee, you took over as interim President. A position that you have to continue to hold even today for the past three years.”
“Under your stewardship in 2014 and subsequently that of Shri Rahul Gandhi, the INC has lost two consecutive Lok Sabha elections in a humiliating manner. Unfortunately today, the INC is ruling in only two states and is a very marginal coalition partner with other two states.”
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