Capt gone, now Ghulam to be Azad from Cong?

Ajay Jha | NT

New Delhi: Senior Congress party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad fuelled speculation he might go the way of former Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, after the former Congress general secretary put the party on virtual notice by hinting that plans to launch his own political party cannot be ruled out in future. Capt Amarinder Singh who announced he had floated his own party on Monday, the Punjab Lok Congress, and that he was allying with the BJP for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections, had quit the Congress party last month after he was removed as Punjab chief minister.

“No one can say what will happen next in politics like no one knows about death. In politics, no one can predict what will happen next,” Azad had said in Jammu and Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu on Sunday. He, however, hastened to add that he has no such plans at the moment.

Azad is however currently holding a series of rallies in Jammu and Kashmir, but not under the party’s banner after leaders considered close to him resigned from all party posts demanding the removal of incumbent state unit president Ghulam Ahmad Mir considered close to senior party leader Rahul Gandhi. This is being seen as preparing the ground before he quits the Congress party and launches his own party.