Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 29: The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president, Vikar Rasool, today said that there is no scrap left in the party with the resignation of several party leaders who left with Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Speaking to reporters at the Congress party headquarters, Vikar said that there is no scrap left now in the party with the exit of several leaders over the last one week.
“Those who left the party, we consider it as scrap and it is gone now. We will bring new faces with new vision. We will bring those new educated faces who want to join politics and do clean politics and work for the development of people and Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
The Congress president said that ouster of party leaders makes no difference to party.
“The late Mufti Mohammad Syeed, who had served as the party’s president, quit the Congress party in 1998, along with a number of other leaders. However, you witnessed how the same Congress in 2010 attracted 30 MLAs and other associate leaders, formed the government twice and appointed a Chief Minister,” he said.
He said that the former legislators or ministers are irrelevant. “Any former legislator or minister joining a party is essentially irrelevant because the leaders must confront the electorate in order to regain power. Just take a look at the constituencies of these MLAs,” he said.
“Ghulam Nabi Azad was a well-known member of the largest political party in the nation. He has left the sea and jumped into a stream. He has moved from an ocean to a stream. If he will get a seat at all or not, the future will tell. I am fully aware of each and every one of the leaders entering the Azad camp. In the same way that Lalu Yadav once told LK Advani that he had seen his future and that he would never become Prime Minister,” he said.
Vikar said that Azad was considering the quitting the Congress party for last two years.
“After being on important positions in the Centre, what use does it serve for him to obtain two or three seats here? He had been considering this for the previous two years and it was nothing new. While I was with him, I had never suggested it. Azad and I were close, and he even put forward my name for the post of president,” he added.
He said that despite being close to Azad, he had always advocated against forming a new party.
“I had always advocated for staying in the party and not forming a new one. I had always suggested this to him and that is the reason I am here and he has separated left the party,” he said.
Vikar said that Azad was waiting for signal to form new party from his high command.
“This thing was going on for the last two years and the people of Jammu and Kashmir should not remain in any misunderstanding. He was waiting for a signal from the high command to launch his party. I do not know for whose signal he was waiting. I think it might be the same people who are giving him awards and weeping for him.
Calling Azad as his mentor, the Congress president said that he chose party over the individual.
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