New Delhi: In a jolt to former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), two of its leaders who have previously served as ministers of Jammu and Kashmir former Jammu and Kashmir government, returned to the Congress on Thursday (November 19).

The two former ministers, Jugal Kishore Sharma and Abdul Majid Wani rejoined the Congress with hundreds of their supporters on Thursday, reported Press Trust of India.

Among others who rejoined the grand old party were former Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) Subash Gupta and Brij Mohan Sharma. The leaders returned to the party during a function organised to mark the 108th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The leaders, who had left the Congress in 2022 and joined Azad’s party, were welcomed back into the Congress’s ranks by national general secretary and Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Syed Naseer Hussain, J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Hameed Karra and AICC general secretary G A Mir.

After returning to the Congress, Jugal Kishore Sharma said that the Congress is the only party “which believes in secularism and gives its leaders freedom to speak their mind,” reported Indian Express.

“The other party is seeking votes in the name of religion. Religion is a personal thing, and one should have freedom to follow their own religion. This freedom is there in Congress,” said Sharma.

By now, most of the senior Congress leaders who had earlier joined DPAP have already returned to Congress.

After most of its leaders had left the DPAP and returned to the Congress, Azad, had dissolved all units of his party in April last year. Azad, who was the leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha and has also been a former Union minister, had quit the Congress in 2022 and later formed the DPAP.

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