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| PDP-Congress may burry differences | | Sonia wants them to contest next elections jointly | |
By MUNISH GUPTA
Jammu, June 22: Amidst the threats and fears of fall of the coalition government due to growing animosity between the coalition partners –the Peoples Democratic Party and the Congress, there are signals of some patchwork between the two and a cold directive from the “supreme command” for going ahead together in the next assembly elections.
The Peoples Democratic Party and the Congress have never been at ease with each other ever since Mufti Mohammad Sayeed handed over the chair of Chief Minister to his Congress successor Ghulam Nabi Azad in November 2005 under the coalition power sharing pact arrived at between the two in 2002 at behest of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The relations between the two partners soared to the awkward limits since January this year as both partners went public against each other washing their dirty linen in open.
Interestingly, highly placed sources in the political circles have suggested that the Congress high command –Sonia Gandhi –does not want the two parties to fall apart. Sources revealed that Sonia Gandhi has given the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Mohammad Sayeed to understand that they should burry their differences under the carpet and start working out a strategy for contesting the next elections together.
EARLY TIMES contacted leaders of both parties to comment on these reports: They neither ruled in or ruled out any such possibility and left it to the top leadership for a decision.
Sources said that PDP is considering this option even though its differences with the Congress seemed to have reached the point of no return. “PDP has almost no other option than aligning with the Congress if the party thinks it has to return to power”, said a political analyst. The prospect of the PDP in Jammu region is quite grim and Kashmir National Conference is its traditional rival with no scope of electoral understanding between the two.
“Problem is not for us, it is for PDP”, said a senior Congress leader as he added, “we have the potential of forming next government at our own and in case of some shortcomings we can make arrangements but who is here in Jammu and Kashmir who can be ready to form an alliance with the PDP.
An indication of continuing the alliance and contesting the next elections together was also dropped for senior PDP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig. In a statement issued to the press after a convention in Badgam, Baig threatened to withdraw from the government but in closed door discussions with his party delegates he indicated that the alliance may go further.
"We will think about parting ways with the Congress if we feel the government was not taking the aspirations of the people seriously," Deputy Chief Minister and senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig told a party convention in Badgam district which ended Thursday.
He said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi wanted the PDP-Congress alliance to jointly fight the assembly elections due next year.
Earlier, Baig said, "the Kashmir issue cannot be resolved through the gun as is proved by the number of graveyards that have come up here during the last 18 years. For resolving this issue we have to win the hearts and minds of the people and these cannot be won with the gun”.
Voicing concern over an overwhelming presence of non-locals in the state bureaucracy, he advised the younger generation to opt for civil services rather than chase professions like medicine and engineering.
Baig also urged the committees set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look into the PDP demand of troop reduction.
"We hope the committees will submit a positive report on troop reduction without wasting any further time."
In another development, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the statement by her political rival and regional National Conference president Omar Abdullah supporting the party's demand on troops.
Addressing a separate party convention here today, Mehbooba said, "Paradoxically, Omar Sahib took a pro-troops reduction stand at the same venue in north Kashmir's Handwara town where he had vehemently opposed the PDP demand in November last year."
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