Jammu, Dec 24: Resigning from the Congress in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad was a “blunder”, former Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief Minister Tara Chand said on Saturday – two days after he along with former minister Manohar Lal Sharma and former legislator Balwan Singh were expelled from the Azad-led Democratic Azad Party (DAP).
Chand, however, said they will remain secular till their last breath and would have no objection in joining the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra when it enters Jammu and Kashmir.
“The decision of the DAP to expel us without any reason or justification came as a big surprise to us. Today, we feel that our decision to resign from the Congress in support of Azad was a blunder,” Chand, flanked by the leaders and activists, told reporters here.
He said they have a long association with Azad and when he resigned from the Congress, “we felt we should stand with our leader and extend moral support to him”.
“The Congress gave me a mandate, made me Congress legislative party leader, speaker and deputy chief minister…We repent our decision today as we feel we betrayed our party, while DAP betrayed us,” Chand said.
Asked about their sacking from the DAP, he said “We have not seen such a type of dictatorship in our decades long political careers. Azad rebelled against the Congress leadership, set up a G23 group and even shot letters but he was not sacked by the (Congress) party which believes in internal democracy.”
“We opposed the Pradesh Congress Committee (J&K) president at his behest but the party did not serve us any notice. We were working to strengthen the DAP, the party which is yet to get recognition, and we were accused of anti-party activities and sacked without any intimation,” he said.
