On Friday, seventeen Jammu and Kashmir leaders who had left the party with Ghulam Nabi Azad three months before returned because they felt they had been “taken on a wrong path abandoning secularism,” but the party didn’t seem eager to welcome the seasoned leader who has criticised Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
A top party official was quoted by Deccan Herald that Azad is welcome to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra if he believes in the Congress ideology, but that the topic of rejoining the party is a “no go area at the present” even as some of Azad’s close aides joined the party.
The leader said that although Rahul Gandhi had written to prominent leaders in the state, including Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, he had not personally requested Azad to join the yatra when it arrived in Jammu and Kashmir later this month. “Has his Democratic Azad Party been registered? Rahulji wrote to party leaders whose organisations have got registration,” the leader added.
The party is not considering extending an olive branch to the Kashmiri politician on its own, the leader added, but Azad must clarify “certain issues” and “apologise for the uncharitable remarks” in his letter.
In what is perceived as a message to Azad, Congress paraded 17 out of the 19 leaders who were scheduled to join the party at the AICC headquarters, including former Deputy Chief Minister Tarachand and three-time Minister Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed. The induction ceremony was originally scheduled to take place in Srinagar, but the location was changed to Delhi for political reasons because two of the 19 leaders were unable to travel to Delhi for it.
Azad, who left Congress in August of last year and later announced the foundation of DAP, recently expelled Tarachand and two others as disagreements emerged within the party.
All three rejoined the Congress in the presence of AICC general secretary in charge of organisation K C Venugopal, AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh and AICC in charge of the state Rajani Patil.
Besides Chand, Lal and Singh, the ones who returned to the Congress included former PCC president and three time minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, Mohd Mujaffar Parray, Mohinder Bhardwaj, Bhushan Dogra, Vinod Sharma, Narinder Sharma, Naresh Sharma, Ambrish Magotra, Subash Bhagat, Santosh Manhas, Badri Nath Sharma, Varun Magotra, Anuradha Sharma, Vijay Targotra and Chander Prabha Sharma (senior women’s leader of DAP).
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The Chenab Times News Desk
