The Hindu : Hectic consultations on in National Conference too

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 13, 2002

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Hectic consultations on in National Conference too

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR OCT. 12. Efforts to forge an acceptable alliance in Jammu and Kashmir by the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress are on but no headway has yet been made towards the formation of a government. The focus has shifted now to New Delhi where the PDP president, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, has gone for talks with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. In another development, the National Conference is also trying to consolidate the independents to extend outside support for a government to keep the Congress and the PDP at bay.

The PDP has postponed its legislature party meeting scheduled for today, waiting for the outcome of the discussions between the Mufti and the Congress leaders. The choice of Chief Minister has become the bone of contention with both the parties making its stand public.

The issue has become contentious since neither party can afford to further annoy Kashmiris by giving the top job to someone from Jammu. However, the numbers make the Congress position strong and it is under tremendous pressure from its MLAs (mostly from Jammu) to decided in favour of the J&K party unit chief, Ghulam Nabi Azad. In case there is no agreement, the coalition may not work. But the senior PDP leader, Ghulam Hassan Mir, told The Hindu that he was confident of a settlement between the PDP and the Congress.

On the other hand, the National Conference has also been persuading the independents, including four from Bhim Singh's Panther's Party, to form the government with its outside support.

A report suggested that the NC had even offered Chief Ministership to Mr. Singh. "This is aimed at keeping both the Congress and the PDP away from power,'' sources said. It is said that the former Ministers, Mohiuddin Shah and Mohammad Sagar, are working towards bringing about the combination. A highly-placed source said that a top police official close to the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, had been assigned the task of roping in some independents. Dr. Abdullah left for Jammu to pack up his belongings in the house there.

But reports said he had delayed his return from there and that some independents were in touch with him as well. His unexpected meeting with the PDP vice-president, Muzaffar Hussain Beig, on Friday evening has also given rise to speculation.

However, Mr. Beig said: "it was a courtesy call and we want to lay the foundation for different political traditions". But a section in the NC has been saying that that Mr. Beig is all set to break the PDP to help the NC form the government.

The NC has advanced its working committee meeting to 4 p.m. tomorrow to discuss the latest situation. The NC president, Omar Abdullah, today met his party MLAs and held talks with them.

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