Hours after appointment, Ghulam Nabi Azad resigns from key posts in J&K Congress

Azad, who is part of Congress’s G-23 group of ‘dissenters’, was recently ignored by the party for nomination to the Rajya Sabha

In a major setback to the Congress, its senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the post of chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Campaign Committee and the political affairs committee, hours after he was appointed by the party high command.

According to the party sources, Azad’s appointment was viewed as a demotion from his existing role as a member of the All India Political Affairs Committee of the AICC. While declining the offer to take over as chairman of the campaign committee and political affairs committee of J&K, Azad has reportedly cited health reasons.

Azad, who is part of Congress’s G-23 group of ‘dissenters’, was recently ignored by the party for nomination to the Upper House.

The decision by the veteran Congress leader came barely a few hours after the party president Sonia Gandhi appointed Vikar Rasool Wani as J&K Unit chief and constituted the campaign committee, political affairs committee, coordination committee, manifesto committee, publicity and publication committee, disciplinary committee and Pradesh election committee of the J&K unit.

Also Read | Cong picks Azad as J&K campaign chief, he declines

However, the decision to appoint Rasool as head of the party in J&K triggered a rebellion within the party ranks with the resignation of several senior leaders from the newly formed committees and the basic membership of Congress.

Those who resigned from newly formed committees include former legislators Mohammad Amin Bhat and Gulzar Ahmad Wani while another ex-MLA Abdul Rashid Dar resigned from the basic membership of Congress.

“I can’t accept Vikar Rasool as his head as he is junior to me. I am a 40-year old Congress member and this is unacceptable to me,” Dar told reporters.

The latest developments have come as a shock for beleaguered Congress party, which has been trying hard to reconstitute the J&K unit amid signals that elections could be held in the Union Territory in the near future.