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| DPAP Turns Irrelevant | | | Ex-Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and former Congress stalwart, Ghulam Nabi Azad seems to have unofficially disbanded the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) led by him.
The party which appeared on J&K’s political arena with fanfare and lot of expectations has ended up as a fiasco.
Born out of a bitter divorce with the Congress party, DPAP positioned itself as a credible “third front” alternative in J&K’s crowded political field. Yet, less than three years since its inception, the party has turned irrelevant and stands buried under the weight of defections, electoral failure, and leadership withdrawal.
The disintegration of DPAP has been both swift and telling. In what can only be described as a political homecoming, senior leaders and former ministers Taj Mohi-ud-Din and Ghulam Mohammad Saroori recently returned to the Congress fold. These defections have significantly hollowed out DPAP’s already fragile structure, exposing the party’s inability to retain even its founding members.
Once considered Azad’s trusted lieutenants, these leaders cited a lack of electoral traction and internal disillusionment as the reasons for their return.
DPAP’s decline was cemented in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, where it failed to secure a single seat, polling fewer votes than NOTA in several constituencies—a public indictment of the party’s failure to connect with the electorate.
In April 2025, Azad reportedly dissolved the grassroots units of his party, a move that was less an administrative decision and more a silent admission of defeat. Since then, Azad’s increasing engagement with non-political platforms such as the Gandhi Global Family indicates a gradual retreat from active politics.
This collapse is not merely the story of one party’s failure—it is a lesson in the challenges of political reinvention. Azad, once a towering national figure in the Congress party, miscalculated the political terrain of Jammu and Kashmir. By attempting to carve out a new space without a strong grassroots network or ideological clarity, DPAP became vulnerable to allegations of opportunism.
Moreover, Azad’s stature alone could not sustain a movement in a region where political loyalty is deeply tied to identity and legacy. The quick erosion of his party’s base reveals that charisma without structure is unsustainable in the long run.
As former DPAP leaders describe their return to Congress as a “homecoming,” the Congress party, long struggling to regain lost ground in Jammu and Kashmir, finds itself reinvigorated.
With Azad stepping back from politics, perhaps permanently, Congress appears poised to consolidate these returns into renewed strength ahead of future electoral battles. |
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