Srinagar

Is former senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad dangling an olive branch to the Congress from whose basic membership he resigned on August 26 this year?

Azad subsequently formed his own political party, Democratic Azad Party which he said would contest the forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

Surprising his supporters who followed him by resigning from the Congress, Azad on Sunday said that the Congress alone has the capacity to challenge the BJP in Gujarat and Himachal assembly elections.

He said the the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is just a party restricted to the Union Territory of Delhi. Talking to some reporters during his visit to Doda district, Azad praised the Congress for its secularism and said that he was only against the Congress' weak party system. He also made it clear that he was never against the Congress policy of secularism.

"I would still want the Congress to win Gujarat and Himachal assembly elections," he said. Surprisingly, Azad showed his confidence in the Congress saying that it takes along Hindu and Muslim farmers. While praising the Congress, the party's former senior leader was highly critical of AAP.

"AAP has failed in Punjab. It can't do anything in these states and the people of Punjab will not vote for AAP again. "Only Congress can run Punjab efficiently. It is the only party that can challenge the BJP in Gujarat and Himachal.

AAP is a party that merely exists in Delhi UT. Congress has an inclusive policy," he said making it difficult for many to decide whether the former senior leader had mellowed down toward the party that he said two months back had completely ignored and over-ruled him.

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He had even said that all the decisions taken by Rahul Gandhi were being taken by his security guards.

On August 26 this year, Azad had ended his decades-long association with the Congress after sending his resignation leader to Sonia Gandhi in which he was highly critical of Rahul Gandhi's handling of the party affairs.