Jammu & Kashmir: RS Chib, 5 other leaders quit in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad

Jammu and Kashmir, Aug 26: Signalling more trouble for the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, former Cabinet minister RS Chib and five other leaders quit in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Jammu and Kashmir Congress leaders Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohammad Amin Bhatt, Gulzar Ahmad Wani, Chaudhary Akram Mohammad, and Salman Nizami have resigned from primary membership of the party in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad.

"We the 5 ex-MLAs are resigning from the Congress party in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Now, only JKPC president will be left alone," J&K Congress leader GM Saroori told reporters.

"Congress lost decisive leadership both at central & state level. This loss caused 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," said RS Chib, who resigned from the Congress party today.

"We knew he would resign, had been having these talks for the past 2 months. Ghulam Nabi Azad was pushed against the wall by the party High Command, he had no choice but to quit the party & it's primary membership," he added.

Azad on Friday resigned from all party positions, including its primary membership, ahead of the organisational polls and accused the Congress leadership of committing "fraud" on the party in the name of "sham" internal elections.

Azad wrote a five-page no-holds-barred letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, detailing his grievances.

He described the party as "comprehensively destroyed" and said the Congress has conceded the political space available to it to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level and to regional political parties at the state level.

Azad, who named Rahul Gandhi in his stinging letter, said a "remote control model" had demolished the institutional integrity of the Congress and alleged that decisions are taken by either Rahul Gandhi or even by security guards and PAs.

"All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and the new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party," he alleged.

"This childish behaviour completely subverted the authority of the prime minister and the Government of India. This one single action more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA government in 2014," he said.

Azad is the latest in a series of high-profile leaders who exited Congress. Earlier, the exit of Kapil Sibal and Ashwani Kumar had jolted the Congress.