- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are some news in brief related to India politics for Friday, August 26, 2022:
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the Indian National Congress on Friday with a scathing criticism of the Gandhis, mainly former president Rahul Gandhi, is likely to float a new party in Jammu and Kashmir, reports said. The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, the sources added, is keen on a new outfit on his home turf. Sources close to Azad, 73, said he wanted to mark his presence in the region before the next elections due later this year.
Five Jammu and Kashmir Congress leaders and former state lawmakers on Friday quit the party in solidarity with veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad who resigned earlier in the day, blaming former party president Rahul Gandhi for destroying the grand-old party’s consultative mechanism. R S Chib, G M Saroori, former lawmakers Mohammad Amin Bhat and MLC Naresh Gupta and party leader Salman Nizami also resigned in support of Azad, Press Trust of India reported.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday took a dig at former Indian National Congress president Rahul Gandhi after party’s senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad quit it and said that he (Rahul Gandhi) is actually a blessing for the BJP, Asian News International reported. Speaking to reporters about Azad’s resignation, Sarma said, “If you read Ghulam Nabi Azad’s letter and the letter I wrote in 2015, you will find a lot of similarities. In Congress, everyone knows Rahul Gandhi is immature. Sonia Gandhi is not taking care of the party, she’s only trying to promote her son. It is a futile attempt. As a result, people loyal to the party are deserting it. I had predicted that a time for Congress will come when only Gandhis will remain in the party and it is happening. Rahul Gandhi is actually a blessing for the BJP,” Sarma, a former Congress leader himself, added.
In yet another blow to India’s opposition ranks ahead of the general elections of 2024, the country’s Election Commission has reportedly recommended disqualification of Hemant Soren, the chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, which is not ruled by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday announced the party’s alliance with the Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade. The development came as the Thackeray-led party is reeling under the impact of Eknath Shinde’s rebellion and the loss of power in Maharashtra, PTI reported. Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Thackeray said the alliance with Sambhaji Brigade was ideological and forged to uphold the Constitution and also regional pride. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of not adhering to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ideology and said the Sambhaji Brigade comprises people who fight for ideology. Thackeray also denied the allegation that he had called current chief minister Eknath Shinde “contract CM”.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot took a dig at Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday over allegations levelled by him against the Congress leadership, saying it is not right for people whose very identity is due to the party to say such things, PTI reported. Azad resigned from all party positions on Friday ahead of the organisational polls, describing the Congress as “comprehensively destroyed” and accusing its leadership of committing “fraud” on the party in the name of “sham” internal elections. Gehlot said no one had expected that someone who was never kept without an office by the Congress for 42 years would say such things about the party.
Indian home minister Amit Shah on Friday held a meeting with the party’s core group members from Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi. Sources said organisational issues and the political situation in the Union Territory (UT) were discussed in the meeting, PTI reported. Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina and other senior party leaders attended the meeting. BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh, who is in charge of the party’s affairs in the UT and co-incharge Ashish Sood, also attended the meeting. The meeting came on a day senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, quit the party.
Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena has sought a report from the chief secretary over the delay on part of the vigilance department in taking action on a report into the construction of additional classrooms in state-run schools in the national capital, India Today reported. The Central Vigilance Commission’s report, which found irregularities and procedural lapses in the execution of the projects, was sent to Delhi’s secretary on February 17, 2020, and feedback was sought for further investigation and action.
