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With a number of its senior and middle-rung leaders either expelled, or leaving on their own, the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Azad Party (DAP) seems to be disintegrating even before establishing its feet.
The setbacks will hit Azad in the area he had been counting on the most – the Jammu division, especially the Pir Panjal region spread over Rajouri and Poonch districts, as well as the plains from border Khour area in Akhnoor to Kathua’s Lakhanpur. In Kashmir, there is no space left for parties like Azad’s DAP, particularly given its ambivalence on the Valley’s demand for restoration of Article 370.
Significantly, the developments in the DAP come while it is still waiting for recognition from the Election Commission, and as the countdown begins for Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra to enter Jammu and Kashmir, in the second half of January. A number of mainstream politicians, including the National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, the PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti and the CPI(M)’s M Y Tarigami, have confirmed their participation in the Yatra.
The biggest departures from the DAP came on December 22, when Azad expelled former deputy chief minister Tara Chand, former minister Dr Manohar Lal Sharma and former MLA Vinod Sharma, who had stood by him at all times. In fact, they had also been the first to resign party posts to press the Congress high command to replace then PCC president G A Mir with a person of Azad’s choice – in the days preceding Azad’s exit from the Congress.
With the ouster of the three leaders, who have significant support in the Jammu division, the DAP is facing the prospect of getting confined to only the Chenab Valley region, via its leaders G M Saroori and Abdul Majeed Wani.
In the wake of the expulsions, as many as 126 people, including the president of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, M K Bhardwaj, and DAP district president Vinod Sharma also left the party, expressing support for the three. Both Bhardwaj and Vinod Sharma were also considered loyal to Azad.
Tara Chand, a prominent Dalit face, is a three-time MLA from Khour. He was the only Congress candidate in Jammu district to get elected to the Assembly in 1996 (that too in his maiden election), when most of the party’s stalwarts lost to either the BJP or the NC. Rewarded with the post of leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Tara Chand won for the second time in 2002. He served as Speaker during the PDP-Congress coalition government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, which came to power at the time.
In 2009, he won for the third time, and was appointed Deputy CM in the NC-Congress coalition headed by Omar Abdullah.
Many in Khour credit the soft-spoken and well-liked Tara Chand with bringing development to the remote border area during his tenure as Speaker and Deputy CM. He also oversaw the extension of the Centre’s education policy to J&K as Deputy CM from 2009-14, including formulating a draft Bill to introduce the right to education to the erstwhile state, though that did not get Cabinet nod.
While there have been some charges against Tara Chand over the years regarding misuse of his official position, none has stuck. Apart from Khour, the Dalit leader enjoys support in the adjoining Assembly constituencies of Akhnoor, Domana and Marh in Jammu division which have a high population of Scheduled Castes.
The other leader expelled from the DAP for “anti-party activities”, Manohar Lal Sharma, is a prominent name from Katha district and a two-time MLA from Billawar. A doctorate in Chemistry, Sharma is considered honest, with a clean record.
The third leader to be shown the door by the DAP, Balwan Singh, is a former MLA from Marh, which has been reserved for SCs in the latest delimitation exercise.
The departure of other leaders in the wake of their expulsions will also hurt the DAP. Bhardwaj, who quit in support of the three expelled leaders, had been a significant gain for Azad as the J&K High Court Bar Association he heads has a considerable number of members owing allegiance to the BJP and Sangh Parivar. He had been the first to organise a public reception for Azad in Jammu after the latter retired from the Rajya Sabha, which drew people from a cross-section of society, including former bureaucrats, retired police officers, lawyers etc.
Sources said what will also hurt Azad is the impression gaining ground of the former Congress leader’s “autocratic” ways, with none of the expelled leaders getting even a show cause notice.
Manohar Sharma told The Indian Express that he got news of their expulsion via the media, ironically while he was in the process of persuading a senior leader of another party to join the DAP.
The “betrayal” is seen as most acute when it comes to Tara Chand, who as Speaker during the PDP-Congress government, is said to have played a role in pushing Azad’s case as Congress CM as part of a rotational agreement for the post with the PDP. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed had been CM for the first three years as part of the arrangement. Sources said that the Congress high command was okay with Mufti continuing, but Tara Chand had presented it with resignations of many Congress MLAs, putting pressure for Azad to take over.
“We are victims of the worst kind of betrayal, not ever seen earlier,’’ one of the expelled leaders said, adding that there were many things they knew which would be revealed “at an appropriate time”.
Azad might have another blow coming. While sources close to the leaders said they were busy “strengthening their group”, asked about chances of them returning to the Congress, an expelled leader said: “Our doors are open to all.”
