In pictures: Ghulam Nabi Azad’s over 4-decade journey with the Congress

Azad was a member of the Congress Working Committee and a member of the Sonia Gandhi-headed political affairs group. (Express Archive)

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   In a massive setback to the Congress, veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from the party and launched a blistering no-holds-barred attack on Rahul Gandhi. In picture, Azad in 1998 (Express Archive)

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   Ghulam Nabi Azad was a member of the Congress Working Committee and a member of the Sonia Gandhi-headed political affairs group. In picture, Azad addresses a press conference at Pradesh Congress Committee Headquarter in Jaipur. (Express Archive)

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   Ghulam Nabi Azad was a prominent signatory to the letter 23 senior leaders had written to Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 calling for sweeping changes in the Congress. (Express Archive)

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   Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his resignation letter, singled out Rahul Gandhi, whom he called a "non-serious individual". Azad said Rahul had “demolished” the entire consultative mechanism in the party, sidelined all senior and experienced leaders and let a "new coterie of inexperienced sycophants" run the party. (Express Archive)

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   Ghulam Nabi Azad in his five-page letter to Sonia, said, “Unfortunately, the situation in the Congress party has reached such a point of no return that now ‘proxies’ are being propped up to take over the leadership of the party.” In picture, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Mallikarjun Kharge, A K Antony, Priyanka Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad after meeting former President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi. (Express Archive)

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   Referring to the Congress’s back-to-back defeats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019 and the string of losses in Assembly elections since then, he said “since the 2019 elections the situation in the party has only worsened.” (Express Archive)

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   Azad also said that the organisational election process that is underway in the party was a farce and a sham. In picture, Azad addresses a press conference at Pradesh Congress Committee. (Express Archive)

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   Azad concluded the letter saying the Congress has “lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India.” In picture, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad addressing the media. (Express Archive)