E-Paper
'Will ally with only...': Taj Mohiuddin, who quit Congress to join Azad camp
Taj Mohiuddin said, “We will form our own party and will make an announcement within 14 days. We are approaching the election commission.”
Taj Mohiuddin, who joined the Ghulam Nabi Azad camp after resigning from the Congress, said on Sunday that the party led by the former Congress veteran will not merge with any political outfit. Mohiuddin, however, said the Azad's new party would form a coalition government (if needed) only with the National Conference (NC) or People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Mohiuddin, a former Jammu and Kashmir minister, said, “We will form our own party and will make an announcement within 14 days. We are approaching the election commission.”
Also Read| J&K leader who quit Congress to back GN Azad claims, 'Several senior leaders...'
‘Will never ally with the BJP’
Mohiuddin also clarified that the new party will not ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), adding Azad’s relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personal and not political.
“I assure you that we don’t have any relation with the BJP and I swear by God. We are secular and can in no way have any ties with a non-secular party, not mine, not Azad’s,” he said.
Also Read| Congress, BJP continue to tradebarbs over Azad’s departure
Mohiuddin has joined the list of leaders in Jammu and Kashmir including RS Chib, Jugal Kishore Sharma and Mohammad Amin Bhat among others, who have resigned from the Congress and joined Ghulam Nabi Azad’s camp.
Azad blames Rahul for ‘demolishing consultative mechanism’ in party
Azad, who was associated with the Congress for more than five decades, quit the grand-old party on Friday. In a hard-hitting five-page letter to Sonia Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India.”
Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Azad, 73, blamed the Wayanad MP for “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the Congress.
He claimed that a coterie ran the party while Sonia Gandhi was just a nominal head and all the major decisions were taken by “Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs.”
