On Tuesday along with Tara Chand, who is the former Jammu & Kashmir’s deputy chief minister, 64 other leaders quit the Congress citing a leadership crisis. This was also done by them to show their support for Ghulam Nabi Azad who is most likely going to make an announcement about the launch of a new political outfit as early as this weekend. In his letter of resignation from the Congress on Friday, Azad criticised the way the party was run and blamed Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi for destroying consultative processes. After a few hours, six former ministers and MPs from Jammu and Kashmir did the same.

Gharu Ram, Abdul Majid Wani, Balwan Singh and Manohar Lal Sharma, are a few of the leaders that resigned on Tuesday in Azad’s support. All of them submitted a joint resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi who is the Interim Congress President. They stated that they have been associated with Congress for decades. However, the treatment given to them was humiliating. Now that their mentor and leader Azad has left the party, they believe that they should come out as well and join him for J&K’s bright future.  

Tara Chand gave a statement saying, “The leadership was failing miserably and this led us to part ways with them. We then requested Azad to lead us and assured him of our full support. He accepted our request and now together we all will work towards bringing improvements.” Chand further added, “Multiple senior BJP leaders are also not happy with certain decisions made by the ruling party. Hence, many of them have also expressed their willingness to join hands with Ghulam Nabi Azad.” 

Azad expressed his joy in a Facebook post that people and political figures from all over J&K were reaching out to them with heartfelt greetings and a strong desire to start over. “I won’t disappoint them. All of us, including Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims, and others, shall step into a new era of advancement and peace in J&K by working together. We have suffered enough. It is time to stand up straight and start walking together to reclaim what we have lost.”  On September 4, Azad will hold a public gathering in Jammu. Then, on September 12, he will hold a rally in Srinagar after spending four days in his hometown of Chenab Valley.

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