BIG setback for CONGRESS, Ghulam Nabi Azad RESIGNS from all party positions

`The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India,` Ghulam Nabi Azad wrote in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.

NEW DELHI: In a major setback for Congress, its senior leader and former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from all positions including primary membership of the party. In a 5-page letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday, Azad informed that he has resigned from all positions of the Congress party including the primary membership of the party.

"The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India," Azad wrote in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.

"It is therefore with great regret and an extremely leaden heart that I have decided to sever my half-a century-old association with the Indian National Congress," wrote Azad in his resignation letter.

Azad also stated that the 'childish' behaviour of Rahul Gandhi, more than anything else, contributed significantly to the defeat of UPA in 2014, in his 5-page resignation letter to the Congress party president.

This latest high-profile exit from the Congress party comes after the polls for the Congress President were deferred. Azad`s resignation follows a series of exits of senior leaders from the party, including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jaiveer Shergil, and Jitin Prasada, amongst others.

Azad had recently resigned from the post of president of the Jammu and Kashmir State Congress Committee. Congress sources then claimed that Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned due to health reasons but party insiders said that he was not happy with his appointment as J&K PCC chief.

Azad is a Congress veteran from J&K, who has worked for the party for several decades. He was even offered a berth in the Rajya Sabha by a regional party from Bihar. However, he turned down the offer saying that `his last time will be spent under Congress` flag.`

Importantly, Azad's resignation comes days after Congress veteran Anand Sharma resigned from a key party position offered to him in the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, citing ''exclusions and insults." The move from Azad came at the time after disgruntled voices within the J&K unit of the Congress rose to a crescendo after the Congress leadership rejigged the whole unit.

Ghulam Nabi Azad is one of the G-23 leaders who were vocal about a leadership change in the Congress and not being dependent on the Gandhi family for every major decision of the Congress party.