Azad Pushed to Fringes, Relations Sour Further With New State Chief in J&K
In an apparent snub to senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Congress high command appointed Raman Bhalla as working president for Jammu and Kashmir unit, a decision that has upset many Azad loyalists.
Bhalla, a former minister and two-time legislator from Jammu, is not considered an Azad loyalist and in fact gets along well with current J&K President Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
Azad who is an undisputed numero uno leader in J&K had not evinced any interest in heading the unit but his loyalists who wanted Mir to be replaced are stung by the decision.
Many rebels wrote letters to Sonia Gandhi saying they would resign from party positions if Mir was not replaced. They had cited his leadership was not inspiring the rank and file to take on the BJP in Jammu and regional parties in Kashmir. The Congress has won only 12 Assembly seats in the last elections and performed even worse in the DDC elections.
This week after much deliberations, the party high command accepted the resignation of some of the 20 odd rebels and followed it up by appointing Bhalla as working president. Bhalla and three senior leaders from Jammu had earlier met Sonia Gandhi in Delhi where a range of issues including the internal turbulence of the party was discussed.
A former MLA from Gandhi Nagar constituency, Bhalla’s moving up the ladder won’t mean he will work independently of Mir but would rather assist him in the party affairs, a senior party leader who accompanied him to Delhi recently told News 18.
“As long as Mir sahib is the president, he is the boss of the J&K unit. Bhalla ji will concentrate on Jammu and pitch suggestions,” he said.
Bhalla has been told to infuse life in the moribund Congress cadre in Jammu where BJP has stolen the thunder since 2014. The BJP has won both Parliament seats and 25 of the 37 Assembly seats from Jammu, a region where Congress enjoyed an upper hand.
Bhalla is tasked to take on the BJP in its Hindu fortress especially the lower Jammu plains where Congress has been badly vanquished.
“Today Jammu is emerging as an ideological turf of BJP and we cannot afford to sit back and relax. The high command has asked Bhalla to take the rivals head-on. He will tell people that Congress is for Hindus if not for Hindutva forces,” the leader, who is with the Congress for the last three decades, told News 18.
The Gandhis’ support to Mir and now Bhalla means more turbulence in the relationship between Azad and 10 Janpath. Azad has been nursing a wound since his entry to the Rajya Sabha was tactfully stymied, following him and 22 leaders of Congress being critical of the high command.
Though Azad had made it clear that he is not in the race for J&K president as he has done that many moons ago, none of his loyalists got any attention from high command. In fact, those who offered to resign were not placated. “This is a clear signal of belittling Azad,” admitted one of his loyalists.
Over the last month, Azad has been on his own, holding huge rallies across Jammu and Kashmir. Neither Mir nor Bhalla or their close aides were present in these rallies, clearly signalling trenches are dug deep between the factions led by Azad and Mir. In one of the rallies held at Ramban near Jammu a fortnight back, Azad told News 18 that while his relationship with Sonia Gandhi was cordial, the top leadership took suggestions as a crime.
“There is a difference between the leadership of Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi with the current one. While they would encourage us to articulate views but the current leadership is not open to suggestions,” Azad told this reporter without naming the Gandhi siblings.
He hinted his supporters were persuading him to float a new party though he has no plans to do so. “But in politics, you don’t know what happens next,” he said curtly.
The Congress has weakened a great deal ever since the BJP juggernaut of 2014 swept it away from Jammu where it had traditionally done well. Since then, Congress had been moving from one crisis to another. Many top leaders like former vice president Sham Lal Sharma, Y V Sharma have moved to BJP. Ajaz Khan, Usman Majid and a few others to Apni Party while senior hands like Taj Mohideen, Peerzada Sayeed and Tariq Karra have turned nascent.
Admitting the relations between the Gandhis and Azad are on a very low keel, a Congress leader said the events were unfortunate and he hopes the acrimony would end sooner than later.
Ravinder Sharma, JK Congress spokesperson hoped the differences would end soon. “Azad sahib has a huge stature and I am sure the issues would be sorted. He has been a Congressman for the last 45 years and I don’t think he will go away from its fold.”
“He is acceptable to one and all, across all regions, faiths and communities,” Sharma said.
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( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.news18.com feed.)
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