Ghulam Nabi Azad resigns: 5 more Jammu and Kashmir Congress leaders exit party

A joint letter in this regard was issued by the leaders, including GM Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohd Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhari Mohd Akram. Senior Congress leader and former cabinet minister RS Chib also resigned from the party's primary membership.

As many as five Congress leaders in Jammu and Kashmir also resigned from the party hours after Ghulam Nabi Azad put in his papers on Friday. All the leaders were close to the Congress veteran.

A joint letter in this regard was issued by the leaders, including GM Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohd Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhari Mohd Akram. Senior Congress leader and former cabinet minister RS Chib also resigned from the party's primary membership.

In a tweet, Chib wrote that keeping in view the betterment of Jammu and Kashmir, he felt the Congress had failed to contribute in the absence of a leader like Azad who could guide the people for its betterment. "Hence I am tendering my resignation from the primary membership of the Congress," he said.

"We knew he would resign, and had been having these talks for the past two months. Ghulam Nabi Azad was pushed against the wall by the party high command, he had no choice but to quit the party and it's primary membership," he said.

The Congress leader further said the party lost decisive leadership both at the central and state level. "This loss caused the party's graph to decline... Azad is a leader himself, his decision is his own. But we will stay with him in whatever he decides," he added.

In his resignation letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Azad accused the leadership of committing fraud in the name of "sham" internal polls, adding the party has been comprehensively destroyed.

Azad, who ended his over five-decade association with the grand old party, said the Congress had "lost both the will and ability under the tutelage of the coterie" running the affairs of the party to fight for what is right for India.