Ghulam Nabi Azad said he will campaign for Congress wherever he is called.
New Delhi:
Veteran congressional leader Ghulam Nabi Azad made himself available to the party on Friday ahead of elections in five states, amid turmoil within the 135-year-old team that has pitted apparent dissidents like himself against the Gandhis and their loyal.
“We are going to campaign for the party and the candidates in the five states. That is the priority and ensure the victory of Congress. I say this on behalf of my fellow party members,” he said, referring to the 23-something leaders who they have called for reforms and have been dubbed “G-23”.
“Wherever the candidate or party calls us to campaign … for the next two months that will be our focus,” Azad said.
The 71-year-old reiterated that his comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi that were seen as praise and renewed the dispute with Congress were misinterpreted. “I didn’t praise the prime minister, there was a context for that,” he said.
At a public gathering in Jammu late last month where he and other congressional dissidents held a meeting, Azad’s comments surprised many.
“I like many things about many leaders. I am from a village and I am proud of it. Even our prime minister (Narendra Modi) is from a village and used to sell tea. We are political rivals, but I appreciate that he does not hide his true self. Those who do live in a bubble, “Azad had said.
The comments came weeks after Prime Minister Modi’s emotional dismissal, when the congressional leader withdrew from the Rajya Sabha.
Right after Azad’s astonishment, another G-23 leader, Anand Sharma, attacked the party’s decision to link with the party of a Muslim cleric in Bengal.
“The alliance of Congress with the ISF and similar parties runs counter to its core ideology, and the secularism advocated by Gandhi and Nehru, which is the lifeblood of Congress. These issues should have been discussed by the Congressional Working Committee (CWC ), “Sharma said. he tweeted, adding that Congress’s fight against communalism could not be selective.
This sparked a full-blown war with one of Gandhi’s supporters, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is the president of Congress in Bengal, and said that the congressmen who accuse the party of violating secularism are those who “have already extracted their own pound of meat. “
The G-23, or the 23 letter writers who called for “visible and full-time leadership” in Congress, apparently targeting the Gandhis, have criticized the party’s performance in elections and voting strategies.
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