Srinagar, Aug 30 (IANS): Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Tara Chand is among 64 party leaders and workers who resigned from the Congress on Tuesday to support Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Prominent among those who resigned from the primary membership of the Congress on Tuesday besides Tara Chand are former ministers Abdul Majid Wani, Manohar Lal Sharma, Gharu Ram and former MLA Thakur Balwan Singh.

After Azad resigned from the Congress, a storm of sorts has hit the Jammu and Kashmir Congress party with loyalists resigning from the party to support Azad.

He has already announced that he will announce a new political party that would contest the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

A political analyst said: "How much of his clean image and goodwill among the people especially in the Jammu division gets converted into votes will have to be watched."

There is, however, is no doubt that Azad's parting ways with the Congress and joining the electoral fray will upset the calculations of the regional as well as the national level political parties during the forthcoming assembly elections.