Ready to quit if collusion charges proved: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday (August 24) offered to resign from the party if he was found colluding with the BJP, as allegedly claimed by former chief Rahul Gandhi in response to a letter by 23 leaders seeking organisational reforms in the party.

Azad was one of the signatories of the letter.

Gandhi had reportedly levelled colluding charges against the signatories of the letter for going public against the leadership, at the Congress Working Meeting which is currently underway in the national capital.

However, the Congress has denied the collusion remarks by Gandhi with senior party leader Randeep Singh Surejwala tweeting that “Rahul Gandhi hasn’t said a word of this nature nor alluded to it. Pl don’t be mislead by false media discourse or misinformation being spread.”

Meanwhile, at the CWC meeting, Azad sought to explain the leaders are not questioning the interim chief, Sonia Gandhi, and only wanted organisational reform in the larger interest of the Congress party.

Before Azad spoke, Rahul Gandhi questioned the timing of the letter, saying that it was sent to Sonia when she was unwell, and the party is battling in Rajasthan, according to reports.

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Sonia Gandhi, meanwhile, said at the meeting that she wants to relieved of the top post and urged her colleagues to find a replacement.

In the letter, the senior party leaders, including former chief ministers and members of the party’s highest decision-making body, had sought a full-time chief who’s active on the field and also an institutional leadership mechanism to collectively guide the party’s revival with the Gandhi family an integral element as part of the overhaul.