Azad’s decision to be part of the ‘G-23’ that signed the letter to Sonia Gandhi gave the project the heft that it might have otherwise lacked as was evident in the dissenters choosing him to deliver the missive and follow that up with a reminder. For someone with a well earned reputation as a power player, his seemed an unlikely mutiny.
Some in the party said Azad felt let down when Congress failed to put up any significant resistance to the vote to do away with the application of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories. He thought the party had taken a convenient position and thereafter felt increasingly out of the loop.
Though a shrinking group, there is a disproportionate number of heavyweights in Congress ranks in the Upper House with former PM Manmohan Singh, ex-finance minister P Chidambaram, former commerce minister Anand Sharma, former I&B minister Ambika Soni, Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel as also influential lawyers Abhishek Singhvi and Kapil Sibal.
To this mix, the recent addition of veteran Mallikarjun Kharge has come as an unsettling development to many. The former leader of Congress in Lok Sabha could potentially disturb an already edgy order in the Upper House. Azad’s fifth term in the House ends in February next year.
Like several other leaders, Azad too might have been unhappy over Rahul Gandhi’s distant behaviour, a Congress source said.
Whatever be the reason or a combination of factors, the Kashmiri politician, who won Lok Sabha elections in the 1980s from erstwhile Congress ‘safe houses’ like Washim, found himself in the crosshairs at the working committee meeting on Monday.
A member from J&K wondered why a certain former CM was not placed under detention and another pointed out that Azad has been or is the ‘high command’, steering the party strategy in Parliament. Azad responded to the jibes by saying his record in Parliament spoke for itself and, later, was at pains to rebuff the charge that he had delivered the letter of revolt despite being aware of Sonia’s ill health.
As things stand, more bloodletting might not be in the interest of either side. But Azad may have crossed a line that marks an improbable turn in his long career.