After taking their anger out on party leader Jitin Prasada, Uttar Pradesh congressmen are now targeting leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and questioning his previous role as secretary general of the All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh.
Azad is one of 23 congressional leaders who signed the controversial letter addressed to the president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, requesting a full-time, “effective”, “active” and “visible” party president.
Now, the former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Congressional committee, Nirmal Khatri, has accused Azad of forcing the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance on the party in the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
“As far as I know, Rahul Gandhi also opposed the alliance, but probably kept quiet due to Azad’s stubbornness and defeatist political thinking … His political science principles focused on the politics of the alliance,” he said. Khatri in a post on social media, pointing directly at Azad.
In an interview with a news agency, Azad, leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, defended the letter saying: “Any congressional worker who has a genuine interest in the party will appreciate the letter.”
Khatri has responded to points raised by Azad in his interview after the Congressional Working Committee (CWC) meeting.
“Azad forgot to mention his role as head of Uttar Pradesh, where he destroyed Congress. In 1996, the congressional alliance with the BSP did not work. He (Azad) signed an alliance with the SP in 2017 and Congress won the lowest number of seven seats in the state assembly, ”said Khatri.
He questioned Azad for pointing out that no elections had been held in the CWC for the past 23 years and asked why he did not raise the issue for so long. He also took aim at Azad for raising issues on a public platform, saying that “CWC resolved that no leader will ever speak about internal issues. Azad’s interview (to a news agency) is in violation of the spirit of the resolution. “
In response to Khatri’s post, a demand is being made on social media to expel Azad from Congress.
“I demand from Soniaji and Rahulji that, in the interests of Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad be expelled from all party positions,” read a post on social media. Khatri, in his posts, had refuted Azad point by point and said that he had realized from the latter’s remarks that he was superior to Azad.
Also read: The leaders of the UP Congress criticize Azad for a letter
Khatri said that Azad got only 320 votes in Jammu and Kashmir’s first assembly election in 1977, while he (Khatri) lost the vote for the Ayodhya assembly seat by just 428 votes.
The Lakhimpur Kheri district congressional committee (DCC) has already passed a resolution, demanding action against 23 top leaders, including Jitin Prasada. Khatri’s comments, shared by many other supporters on social media, have become a topic of discussion in party circles.
Also read: Congress is likely to establish a panel for internal surveys
Following Lakhimpur Kheri’s ruling, DCC President Prahalad Patel claimed that DCC approved it under pressure from a UPCC official.
This is not the first time that controversies have centered on the party’s state unity. The renewal of the Uttar Pradesh Congressional Committee (UPCC) after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections had led a section of party members to question the rejig and impeach the new team led by UPCC Chairman Ajay Kumar Lallu , of being anti-upper caste.
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