Ex-DyCM among 64 more leaders resign from Cong
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Aug 30: While ruling out any alliance with the BJP in the coming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, former Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand today said the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led party would try to bring secular parties on a single platform for restoration of the Statehood and the rights under Article 370.
Tara Chand, a former Speaker J&K Legislative Assembly and a close associate of Azad along with 64 prominent leaders/ Congress functionaries including three former Ministers and two legislators, resigned from the Congress in support of Azad.
A former Chief Minister of the Jammu and Kashmir, Azad is all set to launch a national-level party from J&K soon. He resigned from the Congress Party on Friday, creating uproar in political circles of the country.
“The new party led by Azad will try to bring secular-minded regional parties, from both Kashmir and Jammu regions, under a single platform. We will try to work out a strong front to provide good governance to the people, work for the restoration of Statehood and the rights which were guaranteed under Article 370,” Tara Chand told media-persons here at a press conference.
“The issue of Article 370 is before the Supreme Court which will decide about it. However, when our government is formed, we will fight for the restoration of all the rights guaranteed under the Constitutional provisions,” the former DyCM said while expressing confidence that the Azad-led party will also form the Government at the Centre by having alliance with regional parties in different states of the country.
On being asked whether the party is also open to have an alliance with the BJP, Tara Chand quipped, “Question does not arises. We were in a secular party (Congress) which we left. The party we are forming under the leadership of Azad will be a secular one and we will have an alliance only with secular parties and not with BJP,” former DyCM asserted.
Tara Chand also dismissed the allegations that they are the “A, B or C team” of the BJP and said “Azad is a secular leader and we had nothing to do with the BJP. Azad had himself clarified it several times”.
Defending the decision to resign from the Congress, Tara Chand said “we were forced to take such a decision as the party ignored them over the past several years and did not pay any heed to their protests by way of boycotting the meetings.”
“The Congress failed to play the role of the opposition even as the BJP-led Government miserably failed to live up to its promises of providing two crore jobs annually, check price-hike and ensure development across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir. They are talking about projects which were either started by NC-Congress or Congress-PDP governments. The development work has virtually come to a halt in J&K and the unemployment among the youth has broken all records,” he added.
“We requested Azad to come out of the Congress as his two-and-a-half-year rule from 2005 to 2008 in J&K was a `golden era’, which the people even remember and miss today. People of J&K need the services of an experienced politician and a stalwart like Azad. He accepted our demand and resigned from the Congress after all our attempts to improve the health of the party failed,” former DyCM maintained.
Expressing confidence that more senior leaders will join and strengthen party being raised by Azad in the coming days, Tara Chand said leaders from various parties are also in touch with them and “you will see more and more joinings in the coming weeks”.
Former PCC general secretary Balwan Singh said, “People are not happy with the present dispensation, especially after it downgraded the erstwhile State and revoked Article 370 which guaranteed various safeguards to the people. We require youth and experienced people to pull out J&K from the present crisis, to generate employment opportunities and resolve people’s issues.”
Earlier, Balwan Singh, who was flanked former DyCM and his other senior Congress colleagues at the press conference declared that today as many as 64 senior Congress leaders, including former DyCM Tara Chand, resigned from the party in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad, asserting that Azad’s vision will shape a new and bright future for Jammu and Kashmir. He said they submitted a joint resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi today.
Besides Tara Chand, former Ministers Abdul Majid Wani, Manohar Lal Sharma, Ch Gharu Ram and former MLA Balwan Singh, Chairman Refugee Cell of PCC Vinod Sharma, former PCC general Secy Vinod Mishra, PCC secretary Narinder Sharma, PCC secretary Rehana Anjum, vice president Kissan Cell Santosh Manhas, Advocate Ch Masood, senior leader from Anantnag Vinod Kaul Ch Masood (adv), Parvinder Singh, secy PCC Aradana Andotra, Nantosh Majotra, several Corporators, Councillors, DCC and BCC functionaries from Jammu, Marh, Khour, Akhnooor, Billawar, Doka and Kathua jointly announced their resignations from the Congress party at the press conference.
Azad, 73, former J&K Chief Minister, ended his five-decade association with the Congress on Friday, terming the party “comprehensively destroyed” and lashing out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing” its entire consultative mechanism.
“Owing to the circumstances and the leadership crisis in Congress party, where a coterie surrounding party high command is calling shots in the most irresponsible manner and ruining the party.
“All of us had a very long association with the party spanning over decades and devoted all our energy and resources towards expanding the party in Jammu and Kashmir but unfortunately we found that the treatment meted out to us was humiliating,” Balwan Singh said, reading out from the joint resignation letter signed by 64 leaders and senior functionaries from across Jammu province.
The letter further said “with our leader and mentor Ghulam Nabi Azad having resigned from the party on the issue listed by him in a letter to you (Sonia), we believe that we should also come out of Congress to make some worthwhile contribution in building a positive political society where people are heard and responded too.
“We all support Azad and we will join him in his journey to lead J&K to a bright future,” they said in the resignation letter.
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