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A New Defection Threatens India’s Congress Party

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The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

A New Defection Threatens India’s Congress Party

Veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s exit from the Indian National Congress poses a challenge to India’s battered opposition party.

A New Defection Threatens India’s Congress Party

Then-Congress party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad spoke to the media outside the office of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, May 21, 2019.

Credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

After resigning from India’s grand old party, the Indian National Congress, on August 26, former Rajya Sabha opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is becoming a threat to the party. After his resignation, Azad became the first veteran leader of Congress to announce the creation of a new national-level political party.

Soon after Azad’s resignation, the Congress in Indian-administered Kashmir witnessed a series of joint resignations. More than 100 former ministers, including the former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and a number of office bearers, left the Congress in support of Azad.

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