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| Sonia’s bid fails: Azad skips dinner | | | Srinagar, Mar 26
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad skipped the dinner organized by United Front Chairperson Sonia Gandhi reportedly in a bid to provide PDP’s patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and him an opportunity to sort out their differences over the issue of the withdrawal of troops.
Sources informed that Azad who spend his whole day in Srinagar where he inspected arrangements for Eid Milad congregation returned to Jammu late afternoon. “After he returned, he directly went to his official residence and remained there for the rest of the day” sources from CM Secretariat told News Agency of Kashmir. However, exact reasons behind his missing out the dinner were not immediately known.
Azad and Mufti have been on logger heads for the past one month after the two adopted a stiff stand over the issue of troop’s withdrawal from the state when the latter’s party raised the issue during the last budget session. PDP has been demanding withdrawal of troops from civilian areas, revocation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) and vacation of agricultural and orchard land besides private and government buildings by security forces in the state
Ghulam Nabi Azad has since been vociferously opposing it and at one time had even told PDP leadership to give up their personal security before raising such demand. Since than, the relations between the two main partners continue to worsen even threatening the very survival of the coalition.
Sonia Ghandi had invited the two leaders on a dinner party at her residence at 10 Janpat today to provide them an opportunity to over come their differences in a friendly atmosphere.
Sayeed have been campaigning in Delhi for over five days after Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh invited him to discuss the issue. Mufti, besides holding a series of meetings with Prime Minister also met National Security Advisor M K Narayanan. They have offered for constituting a committee which would report about the prevailing situation in the state before taking any decision.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier Prime Minister in reply to a letter written to him by PDP Legislative Party Leader Abdul Aziz Zargar had said that the Centre can think on the matter only after assessing the level of infiltration during ensuing summer season.
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