New Delhi | WTNS | Aug 26: In a significant setback for the Congress party, veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has resigned from all positions, including primary membership of the party.

In his resignation letter, Azad said that the Congress party has lost both the will and ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the All India Congress Committee to “fight for what is right for India”.

Recalling his close personal relationship with the Gandhi family, Azad said that he has great personal regard for interim president Sonia Gandhi’s individual trials and tribulations that “would always continue”. He further said that he and some of his colleagues would now “persevere” to “perpetuate the ideals” for which they dedicated their entire adult lives outside the formal fold of the Congress party.

To recall, Azad, a member of the group of 23 leaders who sought systemic changes in the Congress party, had stepped down some days ago as chairman of the campaign committee in Jammu and Kashmir.

Responding to Azad’s exit, the BJP said that the Congress party is a sinking ship with no leadership or ideology.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was the seventh chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008 and was the Minister of Health and Family Welfare. He served as the Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha until February 2021. He has served as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh until 27 October 2005, when he was appointed as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He also led the party successfully in the 2002 Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award, in 2022 by the Indian Government in the field of Public Affairs. He resigned from all posts including primary membership in Congress on 26th of August, 2022.