The Hindu : Cong. may go it alone

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002

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Cong. may go it alone

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI OCT. 22. Though a formal announcement has been kept in abeyance, the Congress leadership is said to have decided to stake its claim to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir, possibly in the next couple of days.

Briefing mediapersons after a three-hour meeting of senior leaders at 10 Janpath here this evening, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh, said a "decision had been taken on government-formation in J&K'', but refused to disclose it on the plea that it would be announced "shortly'' by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. He was equally non-committal on the question of whether or not the PDP would be part of the government.

Dr. Singh was sent by Ms. Gandhi to Srinagar over the past weekend to talk to the People's Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in the hope of putting up a Congress-PDP government.

Most of the leaders who participated in the consultations made themselves scarce after the meeting. Party sources said the decision to delay the announcement was a last-ditch effort to win over the Mufti before the Congress formally stake its claim to form the government with the support of the 19 independent MLAs who have supported a coalition led by the Congress.

The core group of Dr. Singh, Arjun Singh, Ambika Soni and the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is expected to meet Ms. Gandhi tomorrow morning to discuss the possible PDP reaction to the Congress move.

At today's meeting — convened after the `Manmohan mission' failed to break the Congress-PDP stalemate over government formation — Ms. Gandhi is said to have sought the views of those present. Though Dr. Singh said there was no difference of opinion, some felt that the Congress ought to proceed slowly while others maintained that the party should stake its claim as soon as possible.

Ms. Gandhi apparently asked Mr. Azad whether he was confident of winning the vote of confidence. Mr. Azad's answer was a confident "yes"

Our demands reasonable: Azad

PTI reports: Earlier in the day, Mr. Azad said the Congress' demands were reasonable. It had also suggested that the post of the Chief Minister be rotated, and the six-year term be split between the Congress and the PDP. ``But the PDP doesn't agree to the suggestion. They want the post for six years.''

Mr. Azad said the National Conference was the single-largest party in the 87-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly but it had not come forward to form the government. The Congress, with 20 seats, was second and had the support of independents. As for fresh pleas by the PDP for more negotiations, Mr. Azad said ``we already had a number of meetings. We have to decide whether we would continue to have more such meetings or just say goodbye.''

The PDP, meanwhile, showed no signs of relenting on its claim for Chief Ministership and indicated that it was even prepared to sit in the Opposition, a report from Srinagar said.

The party vice-president, Muzaffar Baig, said any Congress-led Government in the State without the presence of his party would be ``unstable.'' Both the parties needed each other to provide a ``stable and responsive'' government. ``Our efforts will be to continue talks to form a stable government in cooperation with the Congress and I hope the door is not closed by the Congress (on talks with PDP) because it is a larger party.''

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