Sources said on Friday that former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is likely to return to the party fold as talks have begun between the two. The prominent leader of the Valley had on August 26 quit his 52-year-old association with the Congress party and announced his new political outfit ‘Democratic Azad Party’ in October.
If sources are to be believed, Azad has claimed that he is not against the policies of the Congress, but he has a problem with the weak system of the Congress. He has also made this claim during the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. Only the Congress can compete with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).,
Following his statement, Digvijaya Singh, the convenor of the Congress-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, openly invited Azad to be a part of the yatra. According to sources, former G23 leaders – Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Bhupinder Singh – approached Azad and advocated his return to the Congress besides joining the yatra.
Despite Azad’s scathing attacks on former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, which has angered the family, the party is making every effort to bring Azad back ‘home’.
For this, Bihar Congress President Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Bhupendra Singh Hooda and Ambika Soni have been entrusted with the responsibility of bridging the gap between Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Congress.
Even as Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti have made public announcements of joining the yatra in JK, Azad is yet to confirm his participation.
Azad rubbishes reports of rejoining Congress
Later the same day, Azad dismissed reports of rejoining the Congress as “completely baseless” and alleged that it was meant to demoralize his party workers.
Expressing surprise over reports in a section of the media in this regard, Azad said in a tweet, “…unfortunately such stories are being planted by a section of Congress party leaders and are doing just that ” To demoralize my leaders and supporters.”
“I have no ill-will against the Congress party and its leadership, however, I request them to stop these habitual story tellers from doing so. Once again I would like to emphasize that this story is completely baseless!” he said in a later tweet. There have been reports of behind-the-scenes talks within Congress circles.
In his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi on August 26, Azad hit out at the party leadership, especially Rahul Gandhi, for the way the party has been run in the last nearly nine years. In the hard-hitting five-page letter, Azad had claimed that a coterie runs the party, while Sonia Gandhi was just the “nominal head” and all major decisions were taken by “Rahul Gandhi or rather his security guards and PAs”.
With inputs from ANI