Having failed to win a single seat in the recently-held Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, in a surprise move on Monday, dissolved all units of his Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP).

After the complete rout of the DPAP in the Assembly elections, many confidants of Azad left the party to return to the Congress.

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Bashir Arif, secretary to Gulam Nabi Azad, said the DPAP chairman has dissolved all state, province, district and block level committees. The spokespersons of the party have also been removed. “These committees will be reconstituted in due course of time,” he added.

Following differences with the party high command, Azad parted ways with the Congress party on 26 August 2022 after having remained associated for over 40 years. He then launched the DPAP with all fanfare on 26 September 2022, saying “it will not be autocratic, but democratic”.

The decision, sources close to Azad said, was taken to pave the way for a “comprehensive restructuring of the party”.

Azad’s DPAP contested 23 seats out of 90 in the Assembly polls but could not open its account. The stalwarts of his party miserably lost the election as an impression had spread that the DPAP had a secret poll understanding with BJP.