Over 20 leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including several from Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party, rejoined the Congress on Monday in the presence of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
The leaders who joined the Congress include Yashpal Kundal, a former minister and two-time legislator from the Panthers Party, and Haji Abdul Rashid Dar, a former vice president of the JKPCC.
Others who joined the Congress include Naresh K Gupta, Sham Lal Bhagat, Namrata Sharma, Saima Jan, Shahjehan Dar, Farooq Ahmad, Taranjit Singh Toni, Gazanfar Ali, Santosh Majotra, Rajni Sharma, Nirmal Singh Mehta, Madan Lal Chalotra, Hamit Singh Batti, Ramesh Pandotra, Vaid Raj Sharma, Mandeep Chowdhary, Nazir Ahmed Auqab, Maheshvar Vishwakarma, and Jung Bahadur Sharma.
The leaders’ decision to rejoin the Congress comes after Ghulam Nabi Azad quit the party in 2020 to form his own outfit, the Democratic Progressive Azad Party.
Several other leaders who had left the Congress to join Azad’s party have also rejoined the Congress since then.
The Congress’s decision to welcome back these leaders is seen as a move to strengthen the party’s position in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the next assembly elections.
