`Seems you formed relationship with those who revoked Article 370`: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to Ghulam Nabi Azad

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, has ended his five-decade association with the party.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh lashed out at his colleague and former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad after the latter resigned from the Congress. Singh reacted to all of the reasons that Ghulam listed as to why he left the party and termed them as 'lame excuses'. He also took a jibe at his long-time colleague and asked if he had cozied up with the BJP. 

"It appears you have established a cordial relationship with those who have abrogated Article 370," asked Digvijaya Singh to Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Digvijaya Singh also expressed that he was upset over Azad's resgination despite how well the party had treated him. 

"I and Ghulam Nabi Azad entered politics at the same time. He lost the 1977 Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and his deposit was forfeited. We are of the same age and have good relations and today we have. But I am pained over his decision. The party gave him everything, he was unable to win from J&K so he was fielded from Maharashtra (Azad was elected to the Lok Sabha from the state's Washim seat in 1980s). Twice he was elected to the Lok Sabha and was given five terms in the Rajya Sabha, which means 30 years," he said in a statement.

For the unversed, Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, ended his five-decade association with the Congress. In his resignation letter, he heavily criticised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing" the party's consultative mechanism.

Singh also criticized Azad for his remark calling for focusing on "Congress Jodo" instead of "Bharat Jodo."

"You have written (in the resignation letter) that there is a need to unite the Congress and not Bharat. Instead of uniting the Congress you are indulging in breaking the party and I strongly condemn it," the former CM said. The Congress has said its mass contact programme -- the Bharat Jodo Yatra -- would begin on September 7 from Kanyakumari and cover around 3,500 kilometres through a dozen states and two Union Territories before ending in Kashmir.

(With PTI inputs)