Major boost for Congress in J&K as Azad’s 17 loyalists rejoin party

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday got a major shot in the arm in Jammu and Kashmir as prior to Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra entering the state, 17 senior leaders, including former J&K deputy chief minister Tara Chand, returned to the party. All the 17 leaders had quit the Grand Old party along with Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Besides Chand, the other prominent leaders to return to the Congress’s fold included former minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, Manohar Lal and Balwan Singh. Considered loyalists to Ghulam Nabi Azad, all these leaders had left the Congress to join the Democratic Azad Party (DAP). However, Azad had expelled Chand, Lal and Balwan Singh from DAP last month for “anti-party activities.”

Chand, Lal and Singh were among the first Congress leaders to join Azad when he resigned from Congress in August last year, ending five decades of association.

Azad, who had registered his party’s name with the Election Commission, had expelled Tara Chand, Balwan Singh and former minister Dr Manohar Lal Sharma from DAP on charges of anti-party activities.

All the leaders rejoined in the presence of AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal, AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh and AICC in-charge of the state Rajani Patil.

Welcoming them back, Vengopal said that it was a happy occasion for the party before the Yatra as “our stalwarts of J&K Congress, who had left us due to some ‘misunderstanding’, have come back home.” “It was like these leaders had taken a leave from the party for two months. The leave is over and they are back,” he said. Besides Chand, Lal and Singh, the ones who returned included former PCC president and three time minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, Mohd Mujaffar Parray, Mohinder Bhardwaj, Bhushan Dogra, Vinod Sharma, Narinder Sharma, Naresh Sharma, Ambrish Magotra, Subash Bhagat, Santosh Manhas, Badri Nath Sharma, Varun Magotra, Anuradha Sharma, Vijay Targotra and Chander Prabha Sharma.

Ramesh said that two more leaders will rejoin the party soon. Venugopal said that people from all “like-minded political parties” from J&K, too, are joining the Yatra, which has “become a big movement in the country.”

“This is only the beginning. When the yatra enters J&K...all those people who believe in Congress ideology and want a united India will join the yatra,” Venugopal said.