Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 13: Factionalism in state unit of Congress has once again delayed nomination of district presidents and inclusion of some new faces in the party.
Despite finalization of the names by PCC president G A Mir after consultation with Ghulam Nabi Azad at the latter's residence in New Delhi last week, AICC general secretary and incharge J&K affairs Ambika Soni is learnt to have raised objections and directed Mir to discuss the matter with other senior Congressmen in J&K.
In fact Mir himself had objections over some names included in the list on the recommendation of Azad. But Mir could not oppose the same and hence instead of getting final approval of AICC president Sonia Gandhi, he approached Ambika Soni for some way out to delay the matter, sources in Congress said.
Elaborating, they said that consensus eludes over the district presidents for Udhampur, Samba and Kathua where Azad wants installation of his loyalists while Mir is interested in other names.
For Kathua and Samba, Mir had finalized the name of Pankaj Dogra and Manjit Singh while Azad favoured either Manohar Lal Sharma as Kathua district president or continuation of the incumbent Subash Gupta. Similarly for Samba, Azad favoured adjustment of Vinod Mishra and Arun Sharma. For Udhampur also, Mir was in favour of continuation of the incumbent Ashok Gupta as the district president while Azad favoured Brij Mohan Sharma.
However, sources said, during the marathon meeting between Azad and Mir, all the names were almost finalized after some quid pro-quo between the two leaders and the list was likely to be forwarded to Sonia Gandhi for final nod.
As Mir preferred to consult Ambika Soni before meeting Sonia, the AICC general secretary advised the PCC president to put all the new names on hold for some time, sources added.
Following this direction, sources said that Mir reached Srinagar and held discussions with his group members for two days over the developments and new names.
He is reaching Jammu on Friday for more consultations with Sham Lal Sharma and Mula Ram before leaving for New Delhi on Saturday for fresh renewal of the names to be incorporated in PCC and recommended for district president, sources added. |
