Jugal, Majid Wani, Subash Gupta rejoin grand-old party; DPAP labels them ‘deadwood’
Arteev Sharma
Jammu: The return of three core loyalists of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to the Congress on Wednesday virtually sealed the fate of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), bringing its brief political journey to an abrupt end a little over three years after it was launched.
In what the Congress described as a “homecoming”, former ministers Jugal Kishore Sharma and Majid Wani, along with former MLC Subash Gupta and their supporters, rejoined the Congress in the presence of AICC General Secretary in-charge J&K Affairs Dr. Sayeed Naseer Hussain at JK Resorts in Jammu.
The trio, considered among Azad’s trusted lieutenants, simultaneously announced their exit from DPAP, cutting ties with the party that Azad had floated in September 2022 following his dramatic departure from Congress.
Prior to this, former ministers Taj Mohiuddin and Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, two more staunch loyalists of Azad, returned to the Congress after quitting DPAP in June this year. Both were long-time Congress veterans and among the earliest high-profile leaders to throw their weight behind Azad when he launched DPAP. But their return to their parent party signalled a deepening crisis within DPAP.
Saroori, despite his long political innings and close ties with Azad, had already shown signs of dwindling influence after losing the Inderwal seat in 2014 as an independent by a narrow margin.
With these key leaders leaving, the DPAP has almost lost its entire support base and most of its mid-level leadership, making the party barely functioning on the ground. It is being perceived that this series of resignations effectively signals the early end of DPAP’s political experiment.
Reacting sharply to the resignations of senior leaders and their return to Congress, the DPAP leadership, in a face-saver, attempted to downplay the crisis.
In a statement, senior DPAP leader Salman Nizami described the defecting leaders as “deadwood,” claiming they had lost credibility and was told by Azad to “go anywhere” as he no longer wanted to carry their burden.
Nizami accused the Congress of attempting revival by roping in leaders who had either unsuccessfully contested elections or relied solely on Azad’s goodwill.
““Congress, weakened in many states including J&K, cannot expect revival by relying on these deadwood leaders. Congress lacks a strong face in J&K, with even their alliance partner NC not taking them seriously. Since Azad’s departure, Congress has lost eight assembly elections and a Lok Sabha election,” he said.
Pertinently, the DPAP was launched amid high political hopes after Azad’s dramatic exit from the Congress party, where he had spent five decades. Positioning itself as a regional alternative in Jammu and Kashmir, the party aimed to fill the political vacuum created by the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. However, its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections was dismal, with the party failing to secure a single seat.
Backed by several leaders who had followed him out of the Congress, the party hoped to capitalise on Azad’s stature and the perceived political vacuum.
But it all faded in the shortest possible time. In both the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and J&K Assembly polls, DPAP failed to win a single seat. Of the 23 assembly constituencies it contested, five candidates polled fewer votes than NOTA, a humiliating setback that signalled a total disconnect with the electorate.
Following the electoral disaster, Azad dissolved all party committees—state, provincial, zonal, district, and block level—on April 14, 2025. Though the move was officially described as “restructuring,” it was widely interpreted as an admission of organisational collapse.
“The dissolution was less about rejuvenation and more an acceptance that the party had lost direction,” a political observer said, adding. “Most leaders either defected or slipped into political hibernation, leaving DPAP practically headless. The exit of all influential leaders of the party is the outcome of this political hibernation and disconnect with the masses”.
