Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday launched a scathing attack at ex-party chief Rahul Gandhi and said that it was the Wayanad Lok Sabha MP who is “entangled” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Azad, 73, was referring to Rahul’s hug to PM Modi inside the
“I have been forced to leave my home,” said Azad days after resigning from the party. “Modi is an excuse, they have had an issue with me since the G23 letter was written. They never wanted anyone to write to them, question them… Several (Congress) meetings happened, but not even a single suggestion was taken.”
“My respect for Sonia Gandhi is same as 30 years back, respect for Rahul Gandhi is same as that befitting Indira Gandhi’s family, Rajiv-Sonia Gandhi’s son. Personally, I pray for his long life. We tried to make him a successful leader but he’s not interested,” he said.
Azad, a former Union Minister and an ex-Rajya Sabha MP, resigned from Congress last week citing the “immaturity” of Rahul, whom he blamed for “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the party. In his five-page letter to party interim chief Sonia Gandhi, Azad claimed that most of the decision in Congress are now being taken by Rahul or “rather worse his security guards and PAs”.
“Since the 2019 elections the situation in the party has only worsened. After. Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a ‘huff’ and not before insulting all the senior Party functionaries who have given their lives to the party in a meeting of the extended Working Committee, you took over as interim President. A position that you have continue to hold even today for the past three years,” he wrote.
Azad has now announced his ambitions to launch a new political party based out of Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, it is being speculated that he and his party may join hands with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections slated to be held soon.
Notably, the BJP, which is at power in the Centre, has also welcomed Azad’s resignation from Congress. However, Azad on Monday said he cannot help the saffron party in getting more votes in the union territory (UT), where it removed Article 370 in 2019.
“Congress mein anpadhon ki jamaat hai, especially those sitting for clerical work… Those who know Jammu and Kashmir, I can’t increase even one vote in BJP’s constituencies, they can’t do it in mine…,” he said.
