Ghulam Nabi Azad linked with Congress return, refutes ‘completely baseless’ reports

Democratic Azad Party head and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday rejected reports about his rejoining the Congress as "completely baseless" and alleged this was to demoralise his party workers.

Expressing "shock" at the reports in a section of media in this regard, Azad, in a tweet, said: "... Unfortunately such stories are being planted by a section of leaders in the congress party right now and are doing this just to demoralise my leaders and supporters".

"I don’t have any ill will against congress party and its leadership, however I request them to tell these habitual story planters to refrain from doing so.

"Once again I would like to insist that this story is completely baseless!" he said in a subsequent tweet.

There have been reports of back channel talks within Congress circles. Azad had resigned from the Congress in August following his differences with the party high command and had targeted Rahul Gandhi and his coterie. He went on to form his own party in September-end.

Having joined the Congress in the mid-1970s, he had held many important positions both in the party and the government. A Union Minister in governments of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, Azad was party General Secretary under every party chief. He was the Chief Minister of J&K from 2005 to 2008.

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