Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the party and attacked the party leadership, may return to the party, Congress veterans are working behind the scenes for an amicable formula for his return to the party. However, neither the sources of the Azad camp nor the Congress have confirmed this. But sources claim that the change of power in the party and the recent victory in Himachal Pradesh has forced both the factions to reconsider their stand.
Before the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, Azad had said that only the Congress could fight the BJP, not the AAP, and Digvijaya Singh had then invited him to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Recently, Azad had expressed differences with BJP on the issue of Kashmiri Pandits.
Azad has formed his own party and is on a tour of his home state. As the Bharat Jodo Yatra is about to enter his state Kashmir, if things go favourable, he may join the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Except Azad, G-23 leaders Anand Sharma, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Manish Tewari are still in the party and have been given prominence in the party. Sharma, Hooda and Tiwari proposed Mallikarjun Kharge and even voted in his favor when he contested the party’s presidential election.
Azad resigned in August following his differences with the party high command and targeted Rahul Gandhi. He joined Congress in the mid-1970s and held several important positions in both the party and the government. He Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and was a minister in the Union Cabinet headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh.
He was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008. In his resignation letter addressed to party president Sonia Gandhi, Azad had said, “You are aware that I had very close relations with your family, from late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, late Mr. Sanjay Gandhi to your late husband.” In that spirit, I have great personal respect for you too which will continue forever.
