Major Revolt In Congress as Ghulam Nabi Azad says not consulted after resignation from key post

Hours after he was appointed as the party’s campaign committee chief in Jammu and Kashmir, veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from a key party post. Ghulam Nabi Azad – who had long been upset with the party – was appointed to the post by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Ghulam Nabi Azad also resigned from Congress party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit’s political affairs committee.

Ghulam Nabi Azad was a prominent member of the G23 grouping within the Congress which has been critical of the leadership. He was part of the group which wrote an explosive letter to Sonia Gandhi seeking an organisational overhaul.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday appointed former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as the party’s campaign committee chief in the union territory, but he declined the offer.
As part of a comprehensive revamp of the organisation in Jammu and Kashmir, Sonia Gandhi also appointed Vikar Rasool Wani, considered close to Azad, as the new JK unit chief.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who retired from the Rajya Sabha last year, was not renominated to the upper house by the Congress.
In the revamped unit, Raman Bhalla was named as the working president of J&K Congress and Azad as champaign committee chief, with former PDP leader Tariq Hamid Karra as vice chief of the campaign panel.
The Congress president appointed president and working president of the J&K unit and also constituted the campaign committee, political affairs committee, coordination committee, manifesto committee, publicity and publication committee, disciplinary committee and pradesh election committee of the UT unit with immediate effect, the statement said.
Wani (46), a resident of Banihal township of Jammu region’s Ramban district, is a two-time former legislator who also served as a minister during the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference-Congress coalition government between 2009-14.
Tariq Hamid Karra will be the vice chairman of the campaign committee formerly headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad, while G M Saroori will be its convenor, according to the statement.
The campaign committee has named 11 leaders with PCC president and working president its permanent invitees. Mir, Tara Chand, Thakur Balwan Singh, T S Bajwa, Shabir Khan, Neeraj Kundan, Abdul Majeed Wani and Fairoz Khan are also part of the campaign committee.
Sonia Gandhi also set up a political affairs committee with Karra as its chairman and it included the likes of Azad, Mir and Saifuddin Soz. The political affairs committee also includes Peerzada M Syed, Taj Mohiuddin, Tara Chand, Mula Ram and Khemlata Wakhlu.
The committee comprises nine leaders with AICC in-charge, PCC president and working president being permanent invitees in the panel. The party also formed an 11-member coordination committee headed by Mir, 12-member manifesto committee under the chairmanship of Soz and nine-member publicity and publication panel led by Mula Ram.