Ghulam Nabi becomes 'Azad' from Congress with a scathing attack on Rahul, Sonia

Azad said that all senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday severed his five-decade-old relationship with Congress with a stinging resignation letter that read as an indictment of “non-serious” Rahul Gandhi whose “immaturity” and “childish” actions led to “comprehensively” destroying the party.

The five-page letter also did not appear to spare Sonia Gandhi too, as the 73-year-old leader referred to the “remote control model that demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government” – an allegation levelled against the Congress president – now applies to the party as well with all “important decisions” being taken by Rahul “or rather worse his security guards and Personal Assistants” as she remains just a “nominal head”.

The timing of the letter has damaged the optics for the party at a time it has called a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on August 28 to decide on presidential poll schedule, a rally against price rise in Delhi on September 4 and the start of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir on September 7 in which Rahul will be the star attraction.

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It also has not gone unnoticed that the letter was sent when Sonia is in London for a medical check-up with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Stung by Azad’s action, Congress attacked him for his "betrayal" that reveals his DNA has been "Modi-fied".

Azad, who is on a warpath with the leadership since he led the G-23 leaders whom he said were “abused, humiliated, insulted and vilified” for pointing out party’s “weaknesses” and suggesting “remedies”, will be forming his own party ahead of Kashmir elections instead of joining hands with the BJP. He will be visiting the state either next week, sources close to Azad said.

His resignation came after consultations with close aides in the past three days, as the announcement of party panels recently served as a trigger with his camp claiming that his main choice of GM Saroori for state president was ignored. He was also upset that he was made a member of the Political Affairs Committee under Tariq Hameed Karra, they said.

Though Azad had marched with Rahul Gandhi from Congress headquarters to Birla House on August 15, tension has been growing between both sides with Azad refusing to take up the assignment of chairing the Campaign Committee and from other panels.

At a time Gandhi family loyalist and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is emerging as the non-Gandhi face to succeed Sonia, Azad questioned the organisational polls, alleging that “proxies are being propped up” to take over the leadership and the “chosen one” would be “nothing more than a puppet on a string”. He warned that this “experiment is doomed to fail” because the party has been “comprehensively destroyed” and that the situation has become “irretrievable”.

He lamented that the party has conceded political space to the BJP nationally and to regional parties in states as the leadership “tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the party”. Attacking the “coterie” of Rahul, he said the party should first undertake a “Congress Jodo” exercise before going on Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Also Read: Rahul's tearing of ordinance in 2013 led to party's defeat, undermined PM's authority: Azad

In the letter, Azad found fault with Rahul’s style of functioning saying after his entry into politics and particularly after he took over as party Vice President in 2013, the “entire consultative mechanism” that existed during Sonia’s tenure was “demolished” while “senior and experienced” leaders were “sidelined and a new coterie of inexperienced sycophants” took over.

He said the “glaring example of “immaturity” was Rahul’s public disapproval of an ordinance – Azad claimed Rahul tore the ordinance in public but the latter only said it should be “ “torn and thrown out” – to save convicted lawmakers from disqualification. Azad said this“childish” behaviour “completely subverted the authority” of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “This one single action more than anything else contributed significantly” to UPA’s defeat in 2014 when it was besieged by an anti-corruption campaign, Azad claimed.

Azad put the responsibility of the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls at the doorstep of Sonia and Rahul respectively and said in the past eight years, Congress has lost 39 out of 49 Assembly elections, managed to win just four on its own and got into coalition governments in six states. Now, Congress is ruling in two states and a marginal partner in two other states.