The veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has resigned from the party, alleging that “a coterie was running the party” and that the party should exercise ‘Congress Jodo’ before going ahead with ‘Bharat Jodo’. He sent his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Azad said that he has severed all ties with the Congress.
In resignation letter, Azad said that he was tendering his resignation with a “heavy” heart. One of the most unbelievable exits from Congress in the continuing post-2019 exodus, Azad has accused Rahul Gandhi of reducing to “ruins” what was once a “national movement” that won the country independence. He traced the decline of Congress to the induction of the Gandhi scion in politics in 2004 and specifically to his appointment as vice-president of AICC in 2013 – mocking him for “immaturity”, “childish behaviour”, and calling him “non serious” who is surrounded by “a coterie of sycophants”
Azad, who served over half a century with Congress, gave a five-page resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi, saying the party has been “comprehensively destroyed” and the situation is “irretrievable”. He alleged that the upcoming party election consists of a plan to foist “proxies” as the Congress president – “puppet on a string”. He called the internal polls a “farce and sham” and a “giant fraud”, as no election took place in any block, district or state.
Azad said Rahul has demolished the “consultative mechanism” that existed in the party, and now the decisions are taken by his “security guards and PAs”. He told Sonia that Rahul has upheld a ‘remote control model” after resigning as party chief in 2019, she is “just a nominal figurehead” for the last three years in her capacity as interim president. Targeting Rahul, Azad said, “The remote-control model demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government.” Rahul wanted Azad to go back and take the reins of J&K Congress, which he declined. He said under Rahul, “all experienced leaders were sidelined and a new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party.”
