‘Completely baseless’: Ghulam Nabi Azad denies reports of possible reconciliation with Congress

 

New Delhi: Senior politician and chief of the newly-formed Democratic Azad Party chief Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday termed as ‘completely baseless’ report based on sources that he is likely to return to Congress and that talks have been initiated for reconciliation. He said a section of Congress leaders were trying to spread such stories to demoralise supporters of his party.

Talking to PTI, the veteran politician who has been former Union minister and chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said reports suggesting his return to the grand old party are planted by some vested leaders in the Congress and there was no truth in them. ‘I have never spoken to any Congress leader and neither has anyone called me. So I wonder why these kinds of stories are planted in the media’, Azad said. Azad said these attempts were made by Congress leaders to create a sense of uncertainty within his party cadres and to demoralise them. ‘Come whatever may, we will emerge stronger’, he said.

Azad, who has served as leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, said, ‘I have not indulged in any mudslinging with anyone. Whatever I had to say, I made it clear in my resignation letter. After this, I am on my own path to serve the people who have given me their trust’. Asked whether he would be joining the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra when it enters Jammu and Kashmir next month, Azad said ‘I have no such plan. My hands are full with my own work’.

Azad quit the Congress in August this year after 52-year-long association with the party. Following his resignation from the Congress, Azad launched Democratic Azad Party at an event in Jammu in September this year. In his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi, he had targeted party leadership, particularly Rahul Gandhi, over the way the party has been run in the past nearly nine years.

In the hard-hitting five-page letter, Azad had claimed that a coterie runs the party while Sonia Gandhi was just ‘a nominal head’ and all the major decisions were taken by ‘Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs’. He was earlier the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha. Recounting his long association with the Congress, Azad had said the situation in the party has reached a point of ‘no return’. While Azad took potshots at Sonia Gandhi in the letter, his sharpest attack was on Rahul Gandhi and he described the Wayand MP as a ‘non-serious individual’ and ‘immature’.