In Jammu, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad set to launch his new party today

Jammu and Kashmir politician Ghulam Nabi Azad is set to start a new political innings today with a rally in Jammu, a week after he quit the Congress with a scathing attack on the Gandhis.

Azad will hold a public meeting today at Sainik Colony in Jammu. He left for Jammu to hold the public meeting on Sunday morning which is scheduled for 11 am.

This will be his first meeting since he snapped his nearly 50-year-long association with Congress.

Azad earlier had said that he would launch a new party soon and the first unit will be formed in Jammu and Kashmir in view of impending assembly polls. Azad has been Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008.

Notably, Rahul Gandhi and a string of party leaders will also hold a ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi today.

With Azad signalling that he will float a new party, several leaders have resigned from the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand are among 64 leaders who have resigned from the Congress.

Over 36 Congress leaders including leaders of the National Students’ Union of India, the youth wing of the Congress party, from various universities in Jammu have submitted their resignations in solidarity with Azad.

Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation with a 5-page letter lambasting Rahul Gandhi and his coterie triggered a war of words between him and the Congress leaders.

His apparent closeness with PM Modi has been targetted by the Congress leaders who questioned why he still enjoys his bungalow and VIP security even after his retirement from Parliament.

This stemmed from PM Modi's farewell speech during which PM Modi turned teary-eyed as he remembered his long association with Ghulam Nabi Azad.

PM Modi mentioned the 2007 terror attack in J&K in which several people from Gujarat were killed. Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat while Ghulam Nabi Azad was the CM.