Actions galore in Azad camp as aide claims new national party 'soon'

Jammu, Aug 29: Azad, the Congress veteran who rocked the party with his resignation on August 26, is scheduled to hold key meetings in Jammu on September 4. He has already announced to float a new party while a close aide of the leader has shared that he would soon form his new party, beginning with Jammu and Kashmir where assembly polls are due.

His camp on Sunday said that an announcement in this regard will be made in 14 days.

Scores of leaders and activists, who resigned from the Congress following in Ghulam Nabi Azad's footsteps, met under the leadership of former Jammu and Kashmir minister G M Saroori on Sunday.

"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 told PTI.

"In the coming days, you will see political stalwarts across the country strengthening the hands of Azad by becoming members of his party. Since J&K 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.

Saroori, a former vice president of the Congress state unit, said the new party will contest in all the 90 assembly seats and "we are confident that Azad will be the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir."

He said the doors of the new party would be open to all secular-minded people and parties.

Former legislators Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohammad Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhary Mohd Akram were present in the meeting, which saw several new faces including former advocate general Mohammad Aslam Goni joining the Azad camp.

Azad, 73, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, ended his five-decade association with the Congress on Friday, terming it comprehensively destroyed and lashing out at Rahul Gandhi for demolishing its entire consultative mechanism.