After quitting Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad to hold first rally in Jammu tomorrow

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, September 2

With the former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad set to address his first rally after quitting the party in Jammu, many more leaders and workers from other political parties from across Jammu and Kashmir are likely to join him on Sunday. Azad will hold the rally at Sainik Farms — the place where G-23 leaders had made a public appearance in Jammu for the first time last year after Azad retired from the Rajya Sabha.

Several leaders, including former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari, had come on the invitation of Azad to the ‘Peace Conference’. However, the banquet hall in Sainik Colony on the outskirts of Jammu city will — for the second consecutive year — become witness to the confrontation of Azad with the Congress. Even the Congress is leaving no stone unturned to keep its flock united ahead of Sunday’s event. “We had already told Delhi about the fallout that will take place once Azad starts an outreach programme after quitting the party. But the party paid little heed to the advice of J&K leadership and result is in front of everyone,” said a senior leader of Jammu Congress. “Azad was always a strong force in J&K Congress and there were apprehensions that many people will go along with him if he quits,” the leader said.

It has been reliably learnt that parties, including the Congress, Apni Party and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), are apprehending that some of their leaders and workers may shift loyalty on Sunday. The top leadership of these parties is holding regular meetings to know who could leave their party to save themselves from embarrassment.

The Congress held a meeting in Jammu in which leaders from rural and urban areas were present. Apni Party also held a meeting in Srinagar and Jammu to decide on the future course of action after the Azad factor was introduced in the politics of the Union Territory.

Another Congress leader quits

Rajouri: Congress leader Rajinder Prasad, who is the son of late Master Beli Ram Sharma from Nowshera Rajouri, resigned from all posts and the primary membership of the Congress. Rajinder Prasad blamed the “coterie” system in the Congress as the reason for the downfall of the party. “The party is today surrounded by a coterie of ‘yes men’ and parachuters,” Prasad wrote in his resignation letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi.

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