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| J&K without Azad | | | Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad staying away from the political activities in J&K has hit the “grand old party’ of the country hard in the recently concluded District Development Council (DDC) elections.
Media reports are claiming that the Congress high command is mulling to tame the rebels, including Azad, as the party leadership seems to have realized that side-lining veterans is hurting the party. Azad along with many others was dropped from the list of national office bearers of the party earlier this year after Azad and 20 others had written a letter to the Congress top brass seeking change in party leadership.
After the that development he had even offered to resign from the Congress Party. However, after that All India Congress Committee President Sonia Gandhi side lined the leaders who had apparently raised the banner of revolt against the Gandhi family. Soon after Azad was side lined, the DDC polls were announced in J&K and it led to sharp differences within the Congress Party coming to fore. Ultimately the party had to enter into a pre-poll alliance with Kashmir centric Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) as it realized that winning elections alone won’t be easy. But the results of exit polls suggest the Congress candidates have not done that well and the party is on a very weak wicket. Azad staying away from the political activities in J&K raised questions like whether he is still a Congress man or he has quit the party. Along with Azad, his loyalists also went into hibernation. This led to Congress losing ground in J&K.
Speculations were rife that Azad was disgruntled due to his juniors calling the shots in J&K and his opinion not being taken into consideration by anyone in the union territory, which witnessed its maiden polls after the abrogation of the Article 370.
The new J&K in charge of the Congress Party, Rajni Patil, could hardly spare anytime to campaign for the DDC polls held in the newly carved out union territory. None of the top Congress leaders visited J&K to be a part of the campaigning.
Azad’s absence from the scene created lot of confusion and it seems that the Congress high command has realized that J&K needs Azad. If the party leadership fails to woo the veteran leader back into the party fold, the “grand old party” of the country may end up losing its relevance in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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