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| NC pleads, Cong in no mood to shake hands again | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 15: After the debacle in four states, Congress leaders especially those owing allegiance to ex-Chief Minister and Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad are against any alliance with National Conference(NC).
Though they are not speaking much about Parliamentary elections but have made their stance clear to leaders about going it all alone in the Assembly elections. According to highly placed sources, Congress leaders from Azad group eagerly desire to fight Assembly elections unilaterally and does not want an alliance with NC.
They find alliance with NC detrimental to their political interests. Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz has repeatedly said that nothing is clear about an alliance with NC either for Lok Sabha or for Assembly elections. He has been saying that a decision on alliance with NC would be taken by Congress high command after due consultations with state leaders.
However, Azad had been maintaining a discreet silence over the issue but has recently said that alliance with NC is yet to be decided. Not only this, a senior Congress leader while addressing a public gathering even hinted at PDP being other option for Congress. He heaped praises on ex-Chief Minister and Patron of PDP Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. This was just to indicate that Congress is in no mood to fight Assembly elections in coalition with NC.
Further, Rahul Gandhi's pronouncement in Srinagar earlier this year that he would campaign for his friend Omar Abdullah upset Congress leaders. Congress leaders feel that they are being sidelined even though they have a base in Jammu and can get more seats than Omar Abdullah's National Conference.
They also say that it is either Soz or Azad that that Sonia Gandhi can depend on when it comes to handling critical situations. With the 2014 Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held before the State Assembly elections, the drift between the NC and the Congress would make things really difficult for the latter in trying to work out some sort of an alliance with the NC for the general elections.
Congress and NC leaders have been issuing statements that each party would be able to form the next government in Kashmir on its own strength. And Union Health Minister and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as well as PCC President Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz told party conventions in Jammu and Srinagar that the question of future alliances by the Congress would be decided at the right time.
Obviously, both are keeping wide open their party's options for aligning with either the NC or the PDP. The NC has 28 legislators and the Congress 17 in the 87-member Assembly. The main opposition PDP has 21 seats. The remaining 21 seats belong to the Bhartiya Janata Party, Jammu Kashmir National Panthers Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Independents. |
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