Srinagar: Within hours of his appointment as the chairman of the Congress campaign committee in Jammu and Kashmir, former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday resigned from the post, throwing the party in complete disarray in the state.
Azad had been appointed to the new post by Congress president Sonia Gandhi as part of the reconstitution of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC). His resignation is seen as a major setback to the Congress party ahead of the first Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir coupled with the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Even as Azad, quoting health reasons, did not announce his resignation from the party, another leader Haji Abdul Rashid quit as member Coordination Committee and a basic worker of the party.
With the reconstitution, Sonia had attempted to douse the month-long flames of bickering in her party. Previously, Ghulam Ahmad Mir had been asked to submit his resignation to enable the AICC President to reconstitute the bodies.
According to a press release issued by the All India Congress Committee (AICC), General Secretary, KC Venugopal, Sonia Gandhi approved the nomination of the former MLA from Banihal Vikar Rasool Wani as the new President of JKPCC. She accepted the resignation of the former Minister and senior Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir. Former Minister from Jammu, Raman Bhalla was appointed as Working President of JKPCC.
The AICC President also reconstituted the Political Affairs Committee, Coordination Committee, Manifesto Committee, Publicity & Publication Committee and Disciplinary Committee in Jammu and Kashmir.
Azad's resignation is likely to be followed by a number of his loyalists, even as Wani's name as the new JKPCC President had been reportedly proposed by him. Former Minister and MLA from Jammu's Inderwal segment, in Kishtwar district, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori and Wani had been gunning for Mir for over a year.
Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament Saifuddin Soz, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Taj Mohiuddin, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, Tara Chand, Mula Ram and Khemlata Wakhloo, all former Ministers, have been appointed as members of the Political Affairs Committee to be headed by the former Minister and Lok Sabha member and an entrant from the PDP.
The Congress party has a long history of factionalism in Jammu and Kashmir which dates back to 1960s when Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq and Syed Mir Qasim were the claimants for the top job. In 1987, Ghulam Rasool Kar and Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari fought a pitched battle to occupy the top post. Then Prime Minister and AICC chief Rajiv Gandhi deployed former Bihar Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Jagan Nath Mishra to resolve the crisis in Srinagar.
In the last over 30 years, rivalry between Azad and Soz followed by groupism between Azad and Mir has frequently created moments of embarrassment for the AICC. Azad, has been a big crowd-puller for the party since 2002 when his campaigning resulted in victory of his candidates from 20 Assembly segments. He himself created a record when, as Chief Minister in 2005, he contested and won the interim Assembly elections from the Bhaderwah segment of Jammu with the highest ever margin of over 38,000 votes. However, Azad lost both his Lok Sabha elections from Doda-Udhampur-Kathua to the BJP candidate Dr Jitendra Singh in 2014 and 2019.
Azad served as the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya sabha from June 2014 to February 2021. Previously, he was J&K's Chief Minister from November 2005 to July 2008.
In the last few years, Azad has been a part of a rebellious group in the Congress which has been demanding 'democracy' in the leadership but he has never left the party since 1977.
