SRINAGAR: The first signs of dissension have emerged in the newly launched Democratic Azad Party (DAP) with the party chief and former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday expelling three founding members of the newly floated party including former Deputy Chief Minister.
Azad, who is DAP chairman, today expelled three leaders - Tara Chand, Dr Manohar Lal and Balwan Singh - from the party with immediate effect for anti-party activities.
The three expelled leaders, who were Azad loyalists, were founding members of the DAP, which was launched by Azad on September 26 this year after breaking away from Congress a month earlier.
The three were former MLAs with Tara Chand being the former deputy chief minister.
Surprisingly, a week back, Azad had announced office bearers of the party and appointed Tara Chand as vice chairman and Manohar Lal Sharma and Balwan Singh as general secretaries.
Talking to this newspaper, DAP general secretary Rajinder Singh Chib said the party chief was convinced that the trio was involved in anti-party activities and hobnobbing with other parties.
“They were told to mend their ways and give up anti-party activities. But they were not coming out with any solid reason to justify their activities. Even after being given party positions, they were not functioning within the expectation of the party,” he said.
One of the expelled leaders and former J&K DyCM Tara Chand told this newspaper that they were not involved in anti-party activities. "I had a long association with Azad. After he resigned from Congress, we decided to join him because it was a tough time for him and he had been alone," he said.
"We told Azad that secular forces in J&K are getting divided and this is not good for J&K. We told him that we should consolidate secular forces and work together. While our talks were going on, we were expelled," he said adding, "We have been always loyalists and never betrayed him."
Asked about his future plans, Tara said, "When we resigned from Congress and joined DAP, we were a group of 64 leaders including former ministers and ex-MLAs and MLCs and senior leaders."
"A large group of leaders is with us now. We will sit together and decide our future strategy," he said, ruling out the possibility of joining the BJP.
It is expected that Tara Chand along with his group may rejoin Congress.
Earlier, former Congress MLA Surankote Choudhary Muhammad Akram, who had joined DAP at the time of his launch, had already distanced himself from the newly floated party.