Health or internal strife: Why did Ghulam Nabi Azad call it quits

New Delhi, Aug 17: Hours after senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned as party's campaign committee chairman, party leaders said that he took the decision owing to health reasons.

Azad resigned hours after being appointed as the chairman of the campaign committee. While reports citing Congress leaders said that the decision was taken due to health reasons others signalled an internal strife within the party.

Azad thanked the party leadership for giving him the opportunity and conveyed that he would not be able to take the post due to health reasons, an ANI report said while quoting sources.

On Tuesday the Congress appointed Vikar Rasool Wani as the party's J&K unit president and Raman Bhalla as the working president. Wani will be replacing Ghulam Ahmed Mir who had resigned from the post in July.

Congress leader Ashwani Handa said that Azad resigned from the post as he was not satisfied with the newly constituted campaign committee which he alleged ignored the aspirations of the grass root level workers in the Union Territory.

Ex-MLA Haji Abdul Rashid Dar said that the senior leaders were not consulted before the appointment of the party's coordination committee. We have resigned from the party's coordination committee as a protest against the recent announcements of PCC chief. I have resigned from the primary leadership of the party, Dar also said.

Azad a prominent leader of the dissident group which was nicknamed G-23 was absent for a long time from party activities. In July he however attended a crucial meeting of the party and also took part in a press conference of the party over the ED's summons to Sonia Gandhi in connection with the National Herald case.