'Homecoming': 2 senior Ghulam Nabi Azad-led DPAP leaders return to Congress; vow to strengthen party

Two senior leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, Taj Mohiuddin and Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, have returned to the Congress party after briefly joining Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP).The former ministers were welcomed back at the Congress office in Srinagar on Friday by senior leaders including All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Naseer Hussain, who is in charge of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, and the party’s Union Territory chief, Tariq Hamid Karra.Mohiuddin, who once represented the Uri constituency in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, had left Congress in August 2022 to join the newly formed DPAP. He later quit Azad’s party in August 2024 and unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections as an Independent.Saroori, who had also left Congress in 2022 to follow Azad, parted ways with the DPAP after being denied a ticket to contest from his traditional seat, Inderwal.

He too lost the election.Welcoming them back, Naseer Hussain said that it is a moment of happiness for the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir. “They are senior leaders who have been MLAs and ministers,” he said, quoted by PTI.Speaking on his return, Mohiuddin said, “I am in the party for 40 years. I do not feel like I ever left, I feel I was on leave. I am thankful to party leadership that they forgave my mistake.”He added that he stood with the Congress even during difficult times. “The party support was behind me always whether I was an MLA or a minister. I am their culprit and I feel they will forgive.”Calling his return a “homecoming,” Saroori said, “I am thankful to the party leadership. Humans make mistakes and I apologise for mine.”He further pledged to strengthen the Congress in the days ahead.