NEW DELHI: The Congress party has been served with yet another massive blow.
Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has quit the grand-old party.
Ghulam Nabi Azad quit the Congress with sharp jabs at the Gandhis.
In a letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Azad cited the side-lining of senior leaders and the increasing sway of a “coterie of inexperienced sycophants” as the reasons behind his exit from the party.
“Congress has lost will and ability under the tutelage of coterie that runs All India Congress Committee (AICC),” Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
The former Rajya Sabha MP also lashed out at Rahul Gandhi, blaming his ‘immaturity’ for the Congress’s dwindling political clout and poor performance in elections.
Azad wrote, “Unfortunately, after the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics in 2013…the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him.”
“One of the most glaring examples of this immaturity was the tearing up of a government ordinance in the full glare of the media by Rahul Gandhi… This ‘childish’ behaviour completely subverted the authority of the Prime Minister and government of India. This one single action more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA government in 2014,” wrote Azad in the letter.
Calling the party’s election process a sham Azad wrote, “Unfortunately, at the National level we have conceded the political space available to us to the BJP and state level space to regional parties. This all happened because the leadership in the past 8 years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the Party. The entire organizational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organisation. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC has been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC siting in 24 Akbar Road. At no place in a booth, block, district or state was an electoral roll published, nominations invited. scrutinized, polling booths set up and elections held. The AICC leadership is squarely responsible for perpetrating a giant fraud on the party to perpetuate it’s hold on the ruins of what once was a national movement that fought for and attained the Independence of India.”