Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress, slams 'coterie' for party's slide

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from all positions including primary membership of the Party.

The resignation comes a few days after the leader resigned from the position of chairman of the campaign committee and from the political affairs committee of Jammu and Kashmir Congress hours after his appointment citing health reasons.

"The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India," wrote Azad in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.


In a five-page long resignation later, he wrote, "It is therefore with great regret and an extremely leaden heart that I have decided to sever my half-a century-old association with the Indian National Congress."


This latest high-profile exit from the Congress party comes after the polls for the Congress President were deferred. Azad's resignation follows a series of exits of senior leaders from the party, including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jaiveer Shergil, Jitin Prasada, amongst others.

The move from Azad came at the time after disgruntled voices within the J&K unit of the Congress rose to a crescendo after the Congress leadership rejigged the whole unit. "We are unhappy as senior leaders were not consulted before taking a decision on J&K PCC chief. We have resigned from the party's coordination committee as a protest against the recent announcements of the PCC chief. I have resigned from the Congress' primary membership," said former Congress MLA Haji Abdul Rashid Dar.

Pertinent to mention here, Ghulam Nabi Azad is one of the group of 23 leaders who were vocal about a leadership change in the Congress and not being dependent on the Gandhi family for every major decision of the Congress party.

(With inputs from ANI)