"Situation was entirely avoidable", Anand Sharma expresses "shock" over Azad's exit from Congress

Congress leader and a member of the G-23 group of the party Anand Sharma on Friday expressed "shock" at the resignation of his group member Ghulam Nabi Azad from the party and said that this situation was "entirely avoidable".

However, Sharma added that the development will "pain all Congressmen".

The remarks of the Congress leader came after Azad ended his long association with the Congress party as he resigned from all posts of the party in a letter to party interim president Sonia Gandhi.

"It's a serious development and will pain all Congressmen. I'm personally shocked. This situation was entirely avoidable. We were hopeful that there would be serious introspection but unfortunately, that process was subverted," Sharma said.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh took a sweep at veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad saying Azad betrayed the Congress since his DNA has been "modi-fied".

Taking to Twitter, Ramesh said, "A man who has been treated with the greatest respect by the Congress leadership has betrayed it by his vicious personal attacks which reveals his true character. GNA's DNA has been modi-fied."

Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Khera said the challenges being faced by the party are created by the leaders like Azad.

"When he was taking all the decisions, he proudly belonged to the core group. Now, when others are taking decisions, he labels them as sycophants. The challenges faced by Congress today are because of leaders like him," Khera said in a Twitter post.

Earlier today, Azad cited the "immaturity" of Rahul Gandhi whom he blamed for "demolishing the consultative mechanism" in the party, as a reason behind quitting the party.

In a hard-hitting 5 page note to party interim president Sonia Gandhi, Azad claimed that a coterie runs the party while she was just a nominal head and all the major decisions were taken by "Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs"

The development comes days after Azad resigned from the organisational post of Jammu and Kashmir.

Recounting his long association with the Congress and his close relationship with Indira Gandhi, Azad said the situation in the Congress party has reached a point of "no return."

"The entire organisational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organisation. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC has been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC sitting in 24 Akbar Road," Azad wrote.

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Azad wrote, "Since the 2019 elections the situation in the party has only worsened. After. Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a 'huff' and not before insulting all the senior Party functionaries who have given their lives to the party in a meeting of the extended Working Committee, you took over as interim President. A position that you have continue to hold even today for the past three years."

Azad said that it was "worse still the 'remote control model' that demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government now got applied to the Indian National Congress."

( With inputs from ANI )

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