The curious case of Ghulam Nabi Azad is getting curious. two months after congress condemned freedomRemoving him from the disciplinary motion committee, one in all a bunch of 23 leaders demanding change within the occasion, on Monday named him as one in all their star campaigners for Uttar Pradesh.
And on Tuesday, the BJP authorities introduced the Padma Bhushan award for Azad, making him the primary Congress chief beneath Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be honored so far. (Pranab Mukherjee acquired the Bharat Ratna, nevertheless it formally rose above politics after serving as President.)
The two developments got here amid hypothesis over Azad’s plans for the reason that Jammu and Kashmir chief left for a sequence of rallies within the union territory, the place his loyalists demanded a change within the native occasion management. The rallies started after Azad’s removing from the disciplinary panel got here only a day after at the very least 20 J&Okay Congress leaders resigned from occasion posts.
Along with Azad, one other G-23 chief, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was included within the listing of star campaigners of the Congress for UP.
The group, which has been largely ignored by the management apart from a couple of quiet gestures, is just not certain what to do with the newest blended sign. As the previous Leader of the Opposition within the Rajya Sabha, Azad was the senior-most chief within the group.
Azad’s choice is partly defined by the truth that he has held the cost of UP a number of instances as AICC normal secretary. He is aware of the state just like the again of his hand, shares a private rapport with practically all senior UP leaders, and regularly campaigns for the occasion in seats with the state’s massive Muslim inhabitants.
As pointsman of the AICC in the course of the earlier UP meeting elections of 2017, Azad had struck a tough discount with the Samajwadi Party and secured a decent deal the place the Congress bought 114 seats. It is one other matter that the Congress is on an uncontrolled slide within the state.
Similarly, Hooda, the Congress’s most outstanding Jat chief, is predicted to assist the occasion in western UP, generally known as the sugarcane belt, the place Jats have a major inhabitants.
However, if Azad’s affiliation with the state or its Muslim inhabitants is the explanation in UP, he didn’t make any such concession in the course of the West Bengal meeting elections final 12 months. After showing this manner within the 2016 Bengal elections in addition to the Bihar 2020 elections, Azad was not on the listing of star campaigners then.
Just final month, Shiv Sena chief Sanjay Raut hinted at Congress’ high management’s displeasure with Azad, saying that Rahul Gandhi had informed him that he had requested Azad to go as J&Okay PCC president and that he would once more He can change into CM, however he refused. In the Saamana column, Raut wrote, ‘Rahul mentioned that the occasion has given rather a lot to the seniors. Today the occasion wants him however he takes a unique stand. What can I do?… What insult have I finished to him (Azad)?”
Asked about Azad’s inclusion within the listing of star campaigners, a G-23 chief mentioned, “It is all a farce. How does it matter? Who’s going to campaign? The first phase of UP elections will end without any rally. Do you think AICC makes programs for any of these star campaigners? You can have a list of 30 star campaigners, but nobody goes anywhere except two-Rahul and Priyanka. Arrangements are made for them only.”
The chief mentioned that the “understanding” reached on December 19, 2020, had “fallen because there was a lack of honesty”. He was referring to the five-hour-long assembly of Congress President Sonia Gandhi with the core staff of G-23 leaders. “We cannot continue to write a letter and petition every day,” the chief mentioned.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
