Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is likely to launch his party in the next couple of days, and will hold a press conference on Monday.
“I am inviting the media tomorrow (Monday) before the launch of the party. I am here to meet workers and leaders,” Azad told reporters in a brief interaction at his residence in Jammu after arriving from Delhi.
Also Read: Congress slams Ghulam Nabi Azad over Article 370 stand
Azad ended his more than five-decade-long association with the Congress on August 26 with a bitter resignation letter, saying that the party was run by a “coterie of inexperienced psychophants”. He had lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing” the party’s entire consultative mechanism.
Azad will visit Srinagar on September 27.
A close aide of the former Jammu and Kashmir minister said that the name and the flag of the new party have been finalised and it is now a matter of a day or two before the new party becomes a reality on the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir, PTI reported.
Following Azad’s exit from the Congress, over two dozen prominent Congress leaders including former deputy chief minister Tara Chand, several former ministers and legislators also resigned from the Congress in support of Azad.
Azad has been holding a series of meetings and interactions in Jammu and Kashmir, ahead of floating the new party.
Also Read: Will announce new political party in 10 days: Ghulam Nabi Azad
In his first rally in Srinagar, after he left the Congress Party, Azad had said on September 11 that the restoration of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, that granted special constitutional status to the erstwhile State and was revoked by the Centre on August 5, 2019, was unlikely to happen.
“For votes, I won’t mislead people like other parties. To restore Article 370, political parties would need a majority in the Lok Sabha of around 350 votes and 175 in the Rajya Sabha. This is a number no political party has or is likely to ever get. The number of Congress MPs (in the Lok Sabha) has come down to below 50 seats and if they speak of restoring Article 370, they are making false promises,” Azad had said in a rally at Baramulla.
