Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said that he would announce a new political party within 10 days, ANI reported.
The 73-year-old leader, after spending nearly five decades with the grand-old party, had quit the Congress from all posts on August 26. In a five-page resignation letter addressed to party president Sonia Gandhi, Azad had said that the party had reached to a point of “no return”.
“The entire organisational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organisation. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC sitting in 24 Akbar Road,” Azad had written in the letter on August 26.
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Azad, in a show of strength in Baramulla on Sunday, said, “We will announce a new party in ten days.”
The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister has been holding public meetings in Jammu to garner electoral strength. Azad claimed that his supporters have increased following his disassociation with the Congress.
“I met around 400 people from delegations of 30-35 Assembly constituencies in Jammu. They have given (me) their support and will be a part of whatever party I make…I can safely say that four times more people have come to my support than to the meetings I held in Congress,” he was quoted saying by ANI on Saturday.
Also Read: Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress, blames Rahul Gandhi in hard-hitting letter
On September 4, Azad during a meeting in Jammu said that he had not decided upon the name and the flag of the party, saying that one of his focus areas will be restoration of full statehood.
“I have not decided upon a name for my party yet. The people of Jammu and Kashmir will decide the name and the flag for the party. I will give a Hindustani name to my party that everyone can understand,” he had said.
He added, “My party will focus on the restoration of full statehood, right to land and employment to native domicile.”
Azad will also be holding separate rallies in Kupwara and south Kashmir, Hindustan Times reported.