Loyalists say Azad will go own way, provide alternative Jammu needs

With his Muslim supporters counting on him not joining the BJP, there is some expectation that Azad might float his own outfit. Many leaders believe that would be the wisest course for the 73-year-old leader, as people in Jammu are looking for an alternative.

Within hours of Azad’s resignation, two former ministers of the Congress, G M Saroori and R S Chib, and four ex-MLAs / MLCs — Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohammad Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhary Mohammad Akram — also quit the party. Former minister Jugal Sharma and ex-MLC Naresh Gupta said they too will go with Azad as he is the only one who can bring J&K “out of the present morass”. Other leaders are expected to follow suit in the coming days.

Earlier, Azad had quit from two panels of the party (Campaign Committee and Political Affairs Committee) within hours of appointment to the same, with a supporter calling the appointments a “humiliation” given his seniority.

J&K Congress leaders outside the residence of former party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, after their resignation from the party in New Delhi. (PTI)

Newly appointed PCC president Vikar Rasool Wani, an Azad loyalist who was believed to have been chosen to placate the senior leader, said his resignation will “certainly hit the Congress in J&K as many people will go with him”. “We needed his support as the seniormost party leader in J&K,” said Wani, a former minister and two-time MLA from Banihal.

He was determined to rebuild the Congress, Wani added, emphasising that it was a 137-year-old party. “I am a third-generation Congressman and will try my utmost to further strengthen the party in J&K… We will try to associate new people, especially the youth, with the Congress.”

Those who hope Azad will chart his own path talk of the growing disillusionment with the BJP in the Jammu region, which had voted overwhelmingly for it in 2014 riding, swept by the Modi wave and the party’s promises of ensuring equitable growth in the erstwhile state. The BJP had gone on to join hands with the PDP, which had won 25 of its 28 seats in Kashmir, to form the government.

However, while the scrapping of special status to J&K fulfilled one of the major demands of the Jammu province, none of the benefits it expected from the move have followed, says Shafiq Mir, Chairman of the Buffliaz Development Council in border Poonch district. Rising unemployment is particularly an issue, with the promised growth boost elusive.

Sunil Dimple, chairman of ‘Mission Statehood’, an organisation fighting for the restoration of statehood to J&K, from being reduced to a UT post-August 5, 2019, says that all kinds of groups, from lawyers to social organisations to job aspirants, are on the roads for one or the other demand.

Questions are also being asked of the BJP of the Centre’s failures to meet even promises like declaration of a public holiday on the birthday of erstwhile Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh, which the party had itself pushed in the past.

Azad’s supporters say that unlike Kashmir, which is more homogeneous in terms of religion and has a multitude of parties to pick from, covering the spectrum from mainstream to pro-separatist, Jammu could do with a leader representative of its issues and people. Apart from Hindus, Jammu has a sizeable Muslim population, especially of Gujjars and Bakarwals.

While Kashmir-centric National Conference and PDP have had a presence in Jammu, they have been shrinking in the face of the BJP onslaught, with many of their senior leaders crossing over. Leaders of other regional organisations like the Panthers Party are now with the Aam Aadmi Party and Apni Party, another Kashmir-based outfit now trying to make inroads in Jammu.

Azad’s loyalists say many Congress leaders are waiting to see what he decides before making their move. They also say that contrary to the central party leadership’s claims of Azad growing close to Modi, there was no question of him joining the BJP. “We will have our own party headed by Azad,” one of them said.

The loyalists also point to Azad’s tour of Rajouri and Poonch districts in December last year, where he hinted that the BJP was not part of his plans. At one such rally, he told his supporters that going to just any party was not an option.

The BJP, which had wrested four of the seven seats in 2014 from the Congress in the Chenab Valley region that is considered Azad’s stronghold, realises that what he decides will be crucial.

Political observers point out that apart from the Modi wave, what had helped the BJP at the time was the anti-Congress sentiment as well as the division of the Muslim votes among the NC, PDP and Congress. Azad, it is hoped, would rally most of those votes behind him. Plus, Chenab Valley has two more Assembly constituencies now, post-delimitation, making the region even more crucial.

Azad could also sway voters in Hindu constituencies in Reasi, Udhampur, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts, which had elected BJP nominees in 2014.

In his letter resigning from the Congress, Chib wrote that the party had “lost its momentum”. “Keeping in view the turmoil that the State of J&K has witnessed over the past decades, the people require a decisive leader like Azad to guide them towards a better future.”

BJP J&K president Ravinder Raina said Azad was “forced” to resign after being insulted and harassed in the Congress. “Azad’s resignation shows there is no internal democracy in the Congress and it is run by remote control. It also establishes that the Congress only cares for one family,” he said.

Among reactions coming out of Kashmir, NC president and former CM Farooq Abdullah said Azad perhaps did not get the respect and love showered upon him earlier. “The country needs a strong Opposition,” he added.

NC vice-president and ex-CM Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Long rumoured to be in the offing, but a body blow to the Congress nonetheless…. It’s sad, and quite scary, to see the grand old party of India implode.”

Senior Congress leader and recently deposed J&K chief G A Mir attacked Azad, saying he was looking for an excuse to quit the party. He pointed out that only recently the high command, acting on his advice, had revamped the UT’s state unit by appointing people suggested by him.

– With input from ENS, Srinagar