Within minutes after Congress announced him as party candidature for the prestigious Udhampur-Doda-Kathua Lok Sabha seat Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh on Sunday challenged veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to join the electoral battle from his home constituency.
Udhampur-Doda-Kathua is the home constituency of Ghulam Nabi Azad, who floated his party after resigning from the Congress in 2022. Notably, on September 26, 2022, Azad launched a new political party named "Democratic Progressive Azad Party" in Jammu.
Ghulam Nabi Azad snapped his 50-year-long relation with the Congress Party on August 26, 2022, terming the party "comprehensively destroyed".
"If Azad is so serious about contesting elections, why he is shying away from joining the electoral battle on his home turf", Lal Singh asked and alleged that Azad fielded a candidate only to help BJP in the elections.
"The strategy of Azad is not to seriously contest elections but only cut anti-BJP votes to help the Saffron Party", the Congress candidate said and exuded confidence that people will give a befitting reply to those who are brazenly helping the BJP.
Pointing toward the decision of the DPAP to field Ghulam Mohammad Saroori as the party candidate from the Udhampur-Doda-Kathua seat, Singh said that it was merely a tactic to divide votes of opposition parties.
He questioned why their leader, Azad, refrained from contesting if victory was assured. He remarked, "I am unsure of Saroori's motives, especially since other senior leaders have distanced themselves from Azad".
Azad fields Saroori on Udhampur-Doda-Kathua seat
Instead of joining the electoral battle on his home turf, Ghulam Nabi Azad announced to field former minister and three-time MLA from the Inderwal assembly segment, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, for the Udhampur-Doda-Kathua Lok Sabha seat in the upcoming general polls. BJP leader and Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh is also in the fray to make a hat trick on this seat.
"For Udhampur-Doda, it is my intention and I will discuss it with others that G M Saroori will contest. He is the most senior leader and four-time MLA and vice chairperson of our party. I think I am active, but he is more active than me. He is the appropriate candidate. We have not yet taken a final decision, but we have zeroed in on the name," Azad told reporters after the rally.
Azad unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha election on this seat in 2014
Choudhary Lal Singh has reason to target Ghulam Nabi Azad for not contesting elections because in 2014 he (Azad) was a Congress candidate on Udhampur-Doda-Kathua Lok Sabha seat. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election Dr. Jitendra Singh in the first political battle of his life defeated veteran politician and Congress stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad by a margin of nearly 60,000 votes.
Dr. Jitendra Singh secured 4, 87,369 votes while Azad got 4,26,393 votes as Congress candidate.
Important to note that Choudhary Lal Singh had won two successive Lok Sabha elections on this seat in the 2004 and 2009 elections.
Instead of repeating Choudhary Lal Singh in this seat, Congress in 2014 replaced him with Ghulam Nabi Azad. Annoyed over the decision of the party to deny him a mandate on this seat, Choudhary Lal Singh resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP.
On March 20, Choudhary Lal Singh rejoined the Congress and merged his party the Dogra Swabhiman Sangthan with the party.
