The Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) on Sunday clarified that party chairman and senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is not rejoining the Congress Party.

DPAP’s denial on the issue has come amidst the season of defection that set in immediately after the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.

In a handout, DPAP chief spokesperson Salman Nizami said that rumours have been spread by Congress leaders in Jammu and Kashmir over the past two weeks that Ghulam Nabi Azad and his party are joining the Congress.

“It is also being spread that the central Congress leadership approached Azad to persuade him to join the party,” Nizami said, adding that in his capacity as the chief spokesperson of the DPAP and on behalf of the party chairman, he clarified that since Azad left the Congress party, neither Azad nor any Congress leader has approached each other directly or telephonically.

“These rumours are baseless and false, intended only to create confusion and break our party,” the DPAP leader said.

He stated that Azad had asked party leaders and workers not to fall into this trap and had also requested media persons not to give any importance to these rumours.

After quitting the Congress in August 2022, Azad floated the new political outfit DAP with three key agendas for Jammu and Kashmir, including the restoration of full statehood, the right to land, and employment for native domiciles.

Reports about Azad planning to rejoin the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in J&K have been doing the rounds for the past few days.

Azad suffered a severe setback when his trusted lieutenant and former minister Taj Mohiuddin deserted him and rejoined the Congress on Friday. Many other leaders, considered close to him, including former deputy chief minister Tara Chand, had earlier quit the DPAP and returned to the Congress.

There were reports of many senior DPAP leaders being disappointed over the poor performance of party candidates in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. All three candidates of the party forfeited their security deposit, exposing the politically weak position of the DPAP, which Azad had set up with a bang. The DPAP candidates polled 2.24%, 2.5%, and 3.56% of the votes in the Srinagar, Anantnag, and Udhampur constituencies, respectively.

Moreover, the DPAP suffered in the Kashmir valley due to being identified as a ‘B-team’ of the BJP.