Big jolt to Ghulam Nabi Azad and his new party; 17 loyalists rejoin Congress [details]

At least seventeen loyalists of Ghulam Nabi Azad, including two political stalwarts who were expelled from the Democratic Azad Party (DAP), on Friday rejoined the Congress party in New Delhi. Former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand along with former J&K Congress chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, ex-MLA Thakur Balwan Singh, and others rejoined the Congress party.

The leaders had resigned in support of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who later floated his own party—the Democratic Azad Party, which has now been renamed as Democratic Progressive Azad Party.

Tara Chand, Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed, Balwan Singh, Muzaffar Paray, Advocate Mohinder Bhardwaj, Bhushan Dogra, Virodh Sharma, Narendra Sharma, Naresh Sharma, Amresh Mangotra, Subhash Baghat, Santosh Manhas, Badrinath Sharma, Varun Mangotra, Anuradha Sharma, Chander Prabha Sharma, and Vijay Sargotra rejoined the Congress party.

We committed a blunder by leaving Congress in support of Azad

Speaking on behalf of all leaders who rejoined the Congress party, former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand admitted that they committed a blunder by leaving Congress in support of their political "mentor" Ghulam Nabi Azad.

"It was an emotional but totally wrong decision to leave Congress to show loyalist towards Ghulam Nabi Azad with who we have relations for a long", Tara Chand, adding, "Within days after leaving Congress, we realized our mistake and decided to rejoin the party".

"We realized that our decision to resign from the Congress in support of Azad was a blunder,", he said.

He said they have a long association with Azad and when he resigned from Congress, "we felt we should stand with our leader and extend moral support to him".

"The Congress gave me a mandate, made me Congress legislative party leader, Speaker, and Deputy Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of J&K. We repent our decision today as we feel we betrayed our party", Tara Chand said.

MP Rajya Sabha and AICC General Secretary (Organization), K C Venugopal, said the leaders have joined the party again.

"They have not resigned but have taken two months' leave", he said and added that these leaders and people from across the country including Jammu & Kashmir have also extended their support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

He said that former Congress leaders have also observed that they should also extend their support to their own party and thus decided to join back.

Azad earlier expelled his three loyalists from the newly floated party

On December 22 Ghulam Nabi Azad expelled three prominent faces from Jammu province namely Tara Chand, Dr. Manohar Lal Sharma, and Thakur Balwan Singh from the party.

A three-time MLA Tara Chand, a former Deputy Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of J&K and a Dalit leader was a close and trusted confidant of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Dr. Manohar Lal Sharma is a former minister and two-time MLA from the Billawar assembly constituency of the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Thakur Balwan Singh is also a prominent leader of Jammu province. DAP general secretary, Rajinder Singh Chib, in a statement said that the trio was expelled for 'anti-party activities'.

Azad floated a new political party on September 26

Notably, on September 26, Ghulam Nabi Azad launched a new political party under the name "Democratic Azad Party" in Jammu. He also unveiled the flag of the new party.

Flanked by Tara Chand, and ex-minister Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, former leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad launched the new party today. Ghulam Nabi Azad snapped his 50-year-long relations with Congress Party on August 26, terming the party "comprehensively destroyed". He also lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing" the party's entire consultative mechanism.