Launched with much fanfare, Azad dissolves all DPAP units

Launched with much fanfare in year 2022, the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) on Monday announced the dissolution of all its party units, leaving political observers in Jammu and Kashmir surprised..

The move comes after the party’s dismal performance in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections last year. Since then, the DPAP had slipped into political hibernation, with minimal public activity.The party’s founder and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had also significantly scaled back his public engagements.

In a letter by Bashir Aarif, secretary to the party chairman, it was stated that Ghulam Nabi Azad has dissolved all the units of the party including state, provincial, zonal, district and block level committees, including chief spokesperson and spokespersons.

While the letter stated that the committees will be reconstituted in due course of time, insiders believe that the party had suffered setbacks since its inception and there was little hope that it will again be formed.

Azad, who is a former Congress leader, had surprised many when he launched the party in September 2022. At the time of the launch, many senior leaders from J&K Congress had joined the party but later most of them, including former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, returned to the Congress due to infighting in DPAP leaving the party largely in the hands of junior and unseasoned leaders.

The party has frequently been accused by Kashmir-centric political outfits of being the “B-team of the BJP" — a charge its leaders have consistently denied. The party faced debacle during the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls last year when it was not even able to open its account. 23 candidates from the party out of total 90 contested the Assembly polls but even one did not win the poll.

Azad did not aggressively campaign for the party candidates citing ill health during the Assembly polls.

J & K