NEW DELHI: Veteran politician Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday said he would launch a new party soon and that its first unit would be set up in Jammu and Kashmir.
"I am in no hurry as of now to launch a national party but keeping in mind that elections are likely to be held in Jammu and Kashmir, I have decided to launch a unit there soon," Azad, who resigned from the Congress earlier in the day, told PTI.
Azad, who had served as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Union minister under various prime ministers and the chief minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir, refused to divulge any further details on the formation of his new party.
Refusing to be dragged into any discussion over his resignation, Azad said, "I have thought about this decision for long and there is no going back.
Meanwhile, Congress Working Committee member Tariq Hameed Karra on Friday picked holes in claims made by Azad in his resignation letter on lack of consultative process in the party after 2013.
"If consultative process of Congress party had ceased 2(to) exist since 2013 & forthcoming Presidential elections of the party is a sham, then who got d(the) proposal of RG (Rahul Gandhi) becoming Congress President passed in 2018 AICC plenary session with authority 2(to) choose his team & nominate CWC members," Karra tweeted.
He was responding to Azad's claim in his resignation letter that Rahul Gandhi destroyed the consultative mechanism that existed in the Congress after he was appointed as the vice president of the party in January 2013.
Karra posted a 23-second video clip on his Twitter handle in which Azad is singing paeans about Gandhi being the only person who can lead the Congress party and play the role of the opposition effectively.
Azad on Friday ended his five-decade association with the party, terming it "comprehensively destroyed" and lashing out at Gandhi for "demolishing" its entire consultative mechanism.
Rajasthan's former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot also said that Azad resigned from the Congress when there was a need for the country and the party to stand against the BJP rule.
"The timing of the letter is very unfortunate. He remained on various posts over the last 50 years. Today, there was a need for the country and the party to stand against the BJP rule. This is the time of struggle, to put forth the truth and face the BJP," Pilot said.
He said the allegations levelled in the letter are far from the truth.
Pilot said the need of the hour is for experienced and young workers to come together.
Party workers will continue to struggle and raise their voices against the BJP's "misrule", Pilot said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday said he was not surprised by the resignation of Azad as it was clear he had fallen into the "trap" set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had shed tears for him in Parliament.
He claimed if Azad (73) had been made a Rajya Sabha member again after his term in the Upper House of Parliament ended last year, he would not have resigned from the Congress.
Chowdhury, who is also chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Lok Sabha, was talking to reporters here in the evening after panel members returned from a tour of the Bastar region of the state.
Congress leader Azad on Friday ended his five-decade association with the party, terming it comprehensively destroyed and lashing out at former president Rahul Gandhi for demolishing its entire consultative mechanism.
Asked about Azad's resignation, Chowdhury said, "I am not at all surprised. I live opposite his residence (in Delhi). After the Modi government came to power at the Centre, a minister or MP no longer holding the post had to quit his/her official residence. But Ghulam Nabi Azad had to never vacate his residence (in Delhi)."
The Congress Lok Sabha member from West Bengal then lashed out at the prime minister.
"Has anyone seen PM Modi expressing grief over the death of 50 lakh people due to coronavirus in the country? But he (PM) cried during the retirement of Azad from the Rajya Sabha (in February 2021). That day the whole episode was over for us. I understood. It was clear he (Azad) has fallen into the trap of Modi ji," he said.
Chowdhury said the veteran politician got miffed with the party leadership after he was not renominated to the Rajya Sabha.
He said, "We (Congress) can't make everyone a Rajya Sabha member all the time. Had he been made a Rajya Sabha MP, he would have agreed (to be in the party). When he didn't get it (the post of MP), he got angry. Ghulam ji's anger led him to leave the party."
The Congress MP said the party gave Azad everything during his decades-long political career.
"Everyone knows which party gave him (Azad) recognition. What did the Congress party not give to him? He was made chief minister of Jammu Kashmir and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Every generation of the Congress (in the last few decades) has seen him holding some post," he said.
Briefing about his visit to Bastar, Chowdhury said the image of Bastar, which was once infamous for Maoist violence, is changing and development activities have resulted in a decline in the activities of Naxalites.