50 J&K Congress leaders quit party in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad

(Representational image; Credit: Reuters)

More than 50 senior Congress leaders, including former Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Tara Chand, resigned from the party in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad here on Tuesday. They submitted a joint resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Chand and several others, including former ministers Abdul Majid Wani, Manohar Lal Sharma, Gharu Ram and former MLA Balwan Singh, announced their resignations from their party, including its primary membership, at a press conference. "We have submitted a joint resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in support of Azad," Balwan Singh said.

Azad, 73, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, 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. He will soon a launch a national-level party from Jammu and Kashmir.

Over a dozen prominent Congress leaders, including former ministers and legislators, besides hundreds of Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) members, municipal corporators and district and block level leaders have already left the Congress to join Azad.