Azad's supporters convene to discuss next plans, even as J&K Congress puts up united face

Azad will reach Jammu on September 4

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R In the aftermath of their resignation from the Congress, several leaders and activists who followed in Ghulam Nabi Azad's footsteps met under former Jammu and Kashmir minister G.M. Saroori's leadership to ramp up support for the senior leader in his next endeavour. Azad, a Congress veteran who resigned from the party on August 26, is scheduled to reach Jammu on September 4. He has announced floating a new party beginning with Jammu and Kashmir where assembly polls are due.

"Over 500 prominent Congress leaders and workers, including corporators, panchayat members and block-level leaders, have resigned from the party in support of Azad. The meeting was convened to send a message that we all are with Azad," Saroori said, according to media reports.

"In the coming days, you will see political stalwarts across the country strengthening the hands of Azad by becoming members of his party. Since Jammu and Kashmir is likely to go for assembly elections after the completion of a special summary revision of electoral rolls on November 25, the focus of Azad is here," he said.

At the same time, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress put up a united face at former Union minister Saifuddin Soz's residence where about a dozen party leaders held a meeting to deliberate upon the situation. Asked how he saw Azad's future, Congress leader G.A Mir replied, "Captain Amarinder Singh".

"Till now we used to say [about some parties in J&K] as B-Team, C-Team [of the BJP]. But now, they [Azad-led group] are coming forward as the A-Team. The veil is being lifted, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir will decide what happens to them," Mir said.

Questioning the timing of Azad's resignation, Mir said he should have waited for Congress president Sonia Gandhi's return from abroad. He said the whole country knows that there are only two camps in the country now. "On one hand, there is a party in government with a thinking of breaking India, and on the other is the thinking of uniting the country which the Congress party is leading under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi."