by Yawar Hussain
SRINAGAR: Facing internal dissensions, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee is likely to issue notices to five senior leaders to explain their positions of keeping away from party programmes including the recent ones organized by in-charge general secretary J&K Rajani Patil.
As per sources in the party, the move has come in after five leaders, including former ministers, kept away from the visit of Rajani Patil in solidarity with the former J&K chief minister and now Congress dissenter Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Sources said the notices are likely to issue by the party high command which has been briefed by Patil who last month was on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir first after Azad’s grand show n Jammu in February.
As per sources, the leaders include senior Congress leader and former deputy chief minister Tara Chand; former lawmaker and cabinet minister Ghulam Mohammad Saroori; former minister Jugal Kishore; incumbent J&K Congress Vice Presidents Ghulam Nabi Monga and Mohammad Anwar Bhat.
“The party high command has taken serious notice of the indiscipline in the party with many leaders siding with Azad while not towing the party line,” a senior Congress leader said, adding that the leaders would be given time to respond post which further action would follow.
Congress party has been witnessing rebellion ever since Ghulam Nabi Azad flew to Jammu to a welcome by his friends and well-wishers. A day, later, however, the same streets saw the Congressmen burning his effigies.
Hitting out at his party leadership, Azad had said those who hide their past “live in an illusionary world”, without naming any leader.
“A man should be proud of who he is. I have traveled to many countries and stayed in five-star hotels across the world. But when I visit my village, the smell there is always pleasant. It smells different,” Azad said.
Azad’s remarks came in presence of the new Congress grouping known as G-23 whose leaders were accompanying him and are pitching him to lead the party.
Many in Congress saw the G-23 meeting as an open rebellion against the top leadership of Congress.
Following this, the J&K Congress President Ghulam Ahmad Mir was summoned to New Delhi where he met Rahul Gandhi and J&K in-charge Rajni Patil.
Later, the J&K Congress Unit President Ghulam Ahmad Mir reached out to old rival and Congress Working Committee member Tariq Hameed Karra for the first time in order to counter Azad and portray unity in the party.
