Trouble in the Congress paradise? Sonia drops Ghulam Nabi Azad from disciplinary action committee, retains Antony as Chief

New Delhi, November 20: In a major development, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has dropped senior leader and former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad from the panel of the newly constituted disciplinary committee of the party.

 

In the reconstituted panel, former Defence Minister AK Antony will serve as the chairman, whereas Ambika Soni, Tariq Anwar, JP Agarwal, and G Parameshwara are the members.

 

The Congress has not attributed any reason behind suddenly discarding Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been a member of the disciplinary committee for a long time. At this point, it should be noted that Azad, a CWC member, is part of the G23 — the group that wrote to Sonia demanding sweeping changes in the party structure. With that, it seems like she gets irked by Azad's demand and took this decision.

 

Apart from the Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress president also dropped former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and former Arunachal Chief Minister Mukut Mithi from the disciplinary committee. The committee was revamped following the death of Motilal Vohra who was the member secretary of the committee.

 

 

 

Azad was dropped a day after around 20 Congress leaders from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) considered close to him resigned from their party positions. They include former ministers GM Saroori, Vikar Rasool, and Dr. Manohar Lal Sharma; former MLAs Jugal Kishore Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Monga, Naresh Gupta, Mohammad Amin Bhat, Subash Gupta; State Congress vice-president Anwar Bhat, and member of Kulgam District Development Council Anyatullah Rather.

They sent their resignation to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and in-charge Secretary (J & K) Rajni Patil. They said that they were forced to resign following the ‘hostile attitude’ of the party leadership and accused J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir of leading the party to a disastrous condition.

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