SRINAGAR: The Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), launched in 2022, suffered a major setback as its last two prominent faces returned to the Congress fold on Friday. With this, the former J&K chief minister’s ambitious plan to provide an alternative political force in the UT now seems like a closed chapter.In the past few months, Azad himself has not shown any interest in reviving his party as he has not held any meeting.Former ministers Taj Mohiuddin and Ghulam Nabi Saroori, who were among the first to leave Congress and join DPAP in Aug 2022, rejoined Congress at the party headquarters in Srinagar. Regretting his earlier decision to leave the party, Mohiuddin said: “Congress has always been my home. Leaving it was a painful and unfortunate decision.” Saroori described his return as a “ghar wapsi” (homecoming).Both Saroori and Mohideen, who had been with Congress for decades before they parted ways, had been planning their return for the past few months. “Congress is like an ocean,” Mohiuddin said.J&K Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra said the return of the two ex-ministers would strengthen the party. “There are others also who want to rejoin, and we are considering each case one by one,” Karra said. Last month, DPAP Kashmir president, Mohammad Amin Bhat, had rejoined Congress.On April 14, Azad had announced the dissolution of his party organisation as part of a restructuring exercise, but there was no development thereafter. The move came nearly six months after DPAP’s rout in the Oct 2024 Assembly polls despite Azad’s intensive campaigning across J&K. The party contested 23 out of 90 seats, but could not secure a single victory.After Azad founded DPAP, nearly 90 per cent of Congress representatives in J&K joined him, leaving the grand old party virtually defunct in the UT. However, most of them have returned to the Congress fold. Around 20 prominent political representatives quit Azad’s party after Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2023.
