Who is Ghulam Nabi Azad, the veteran Congress-turned-rebel who quit party

Without mincing any word, Ghulam Nabi Azad attacked Rahul Gandhi and said the party at the national level conceded to the BJP and regional parties in the state level. "This all happened because the leadership in the past 08 years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the party."

Ghulam Nabi Azad is an Indian politician who worked for the Indian National Congress (INC). Azad was the seventh chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008 and was the Minister of Health and Family Welfare.

He served as the Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha until February 2021. He has served as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh until 27 October 2005, when he was appointed as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

On Friday, Azad resigned from all posts of the party, including the primary leadership, sending a five-page note to party interim president Sonia Gandhi where he recounted his long association with the party and his close relationship with Indira Gandhi.

The situation in the Congress party has reached a point of 'no return', Ghulam Nabi Azad wrote in his detailed resignation letter, days after he resigned from the organisational post of Jammu and Kashmir citing health issues.

Without mincing any word, Ghulam Nabi Azad attacked Rahul Gandhi and said the party at the national level conceded to the BJP and regional parties in the state level. "This all happened because the leadership in the past 08 years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the party.

Azad said the situation has only worsened since the 2019 elections after Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a huff and not before insulting all the senior party functionaries who have given their lives to the party. The remote control model that destroyed the UPA got applied to Congress, Azad wrote.

According to reports, Azad started his career soon after working as the secretary for the Block Congress Committee in Bhalessa in 1973. Two years later, he was nominated as the President of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Youth Congress. In 1980, he was appointed as the President of the All-India Youth Congress.

After being elected to the Seventh Lok Sabha from Maharashtra's Washim (Lok Sabha constituency) in 1980, Azad entered into the Central government as Deputy Minister in charge of Law, Justice and Company Affairs Ministry in 1982.