Oust Soz chorus reaches Delhi

A personality clash between two senior leaders, Saifuddin Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, has plunged the Congress into a deep crisis in Jammu and Kashmir. A group of senior leaders arrived in New Delhi to seek the ouster of Soz as the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief.

A personality clash between two senior leaders, Saifuddin Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, has plunged the Congress into a deep crisis in Jammu and Kashmir. A group of senior leaders arrived in New Delhi to seek the ouster of Soz as the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief.

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The group — comprising Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, Abdul Ghani Vakil, Mohammad Sharief Niaz, Haji Ali Mohammad, Janak Raj Gupta, Abdul Majid Wani and Ashok Kumar — has sought an appointment with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apprise her of the prevailing crisis in the state unit.

The leaders held closed door discussions with Azad on Thursday and are also planning to meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

“We are here to request the party high command to immediately remove Soz as PCC chief,” a leader, who is part of the delegation, told HT requesting anonymity.

The group alleged that Soz had played a “dirty role” in getting some senior leaders like Aslam, who is the Congress Legislature Party leader, and Niaz dropped from the list of those being considered to be included in the Council of Ministers.

He said Soz was “trying his best” to ensure that Ghulam Ahmed Mir, a former minister, who is an accused in the 2006 sex scandal, is included in the Council of Ministers.

With the war of words between Azad and Soz escalating, the Congress high command has asked the two leaders to “lie low” for some time.