Could Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Congress exit pave way for a ‘win-win’ alliance with BJP? | India News

NEW DELHI: Former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad ended his decades-long association with Congress on Friday and gave a brutal assessment of the grand old party in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.
Azad, who was one of the prominent faces of the dissenting G23 group, has joined a growing list of disgruntled Congress leaders who have quit the party in recent months amid issues with the leadership.

The veteran J&K politician has announced that he will now form his own political party in J&K.
Azad’s move comes at a critical time since assembly elections are likely to be announced in J&K either later this year or early next year. It will be the Valley’s first elections since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
With the delimitation exercise complete, parties are already gearing up for the impending political battle in Jammu & Kashmir. And that’s why Azad’s resignation could be crucial — not for Congress but BJP.
A ‘Modi-fied’ Azad?
In a dig at Azad after he left the party, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that “GNA’s (Azad’s initials) DNA has been Modi-fied”.
The remark by the senior Congress leader was not just a cheeky reference to Azad’s close association with Prime Minister Narendra Modi but an indicator that the J&K leader could form an alliance with the BJP in the future.
For now, Azad has ruled out joining hands with any party and will likely go solo in the near future.
However, if an alliance does materialise, it could be a win-win situation for BJP and Azad.
The saffron party already has a strong presence in the Jammu region of the UT. It had won 25 out of 37 seats in the region in 2014. In fact, all these seats were in Jammu itself.

With Azad in the fold — as a party leader or an ally — the BJP would look to consolidate these gains since the former CM hails from Jammu.

Moreover, the BJP will be eyeing significant gains in Jammu either way since the delimitation exercise has left the region with six more seats — from 37 to 43.
An alliance with Azad could bolster the saffron party’s position not only in Jammu, but also beyond the region.
Azad served as the chief minister of J&K from November 2005 to July 2018. As J&K Congress chief, he toured the length and breadth of the Valley and spent time interacting with the locals.
Thus, Azad’s appeal in J&K will help the saffron party in the event of an alliance and could also dent the vote banks of PDP, National Conference and Congress.
For Azad too, BJP could be a possible recourse since he will no longer find the space to establish himself in traditional parties like NC or PDP. Moreover, his close friendship with PM Modi and warm ties with other BJP leaders will work in his favour.
In the past too, BJP has reaped rich political dividends by giving space to former Congress leaders. Take Himanta Biswa Sarma and Jyotiraditya Scindia for instance.
Both Sarma and Scindia had quit the Congress due to dissatisfaction with the party leadership. In BJP, Sarma is now the chief minister of Assam while Scindia is the Union civil aviation minister. Both leaders have also helped BJP win crucial elections in Assam and MP.
Is an Azad-BJP union likely though?
BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi has already rolled out the welcome mat for Azad, saying that he will be happy to persuade the J&K leader to join the party if asked.
Even Azad’s nephew, Mubashir Azad, joined the BJP in February this year.
However, it is hard to say whether the higher-ups in BJP or even Azad is thinking about a political alliance.
Some within the BJP feel that an alliance with Azad would not be politically viable for either side. They feel that if Azad does join BJP and is projected as the CM face, the saffron party could lose the support of Hindus in Jammu while Azad will suffer a similar fate with Muslims in Srinagar.

Others feel that for Azad, 73, it is too late to join the party and make a mark.
But in politics, nothing is cast in stone.
In recent years, the saffron party has onboarded staunch rivals into its fold and witnessed political gains. In J&K too, it formed an alliance with an ideologically opposite party like PDP.
And if Congress’s hint wasn’t enough, Azad himself began his resignation letter with a statement that sends a strong signal.
In his letter to Sonia, Azad said that he joined Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in the mid-1970s when it was still a “taboo” to be associated with the party given its history in the state.
Only time will tell whether Azad can make another bold political move like that, 50 years later.