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| Kashmir Congress campaigning against Azad while Jammu Congress Favours him | | | Early Times Reporter
Srinagar | Oct 11
A section in the AICC corridors is said to have started a campaign against continuance of Ghulam Nabi Azad as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.The camp opposing Azad’s continuance as Kashmir Chief Minister has been receiving patronage from a senior Congress leader,supposed to be a close confident of Ms Sonia Gandhi.
Informed sources in the Congress said that the plea taken by the anti-Azad camp was that the Congress needed a muslim leader of stature whose services could be utilized during the Lok Sabha election which may be held before the schedule.
This camp is said to have conveyed to Ms Sonia Gandhi that Mr Azad’s services during previous elections not only at the national level but in several states had been tested successfully and as such he could be banked on mobilizing voters support for the Congress.
Sources said that atleast four senior Congress leaders,including two holding ministerial level posts,in Jammu and Kashmir,were supporting the anti-Azad camp in the AICC.These leaders belonging to the state have conveyed to Mr Ahmed Patel,political secretary to Ms Sonia Gandhi,that whatever may be the achievements of Mr Azad as Chief Minister as far as development of the state was concerned the state unit of the Congress had become visibly weak.Their opinion is that if Mr Azad was not shifted to Delhi he may be held responsible for presiding over the liquidation of the Congress.
However,majority of congress leaders and workers from the Jammu region favour Mr Azad on the plea that his policies had created a better image for the congress atleast in the Jammu region.Their another fear is that once Mr Azad was shifted to Delhi a Kashmir leader would be the natural replacement which they were not ready to accept.But the anti-Azad camp is also unhappy with the way the conflict between the Congress and the PDP has aggravated since the time Mr Azad took over as Chief Minister.The camp seems to be in favour of either Prof. Saifuddin soz,Union Minister for Water resources,or Mr Shafi Qureshi,who was recently appointed as chairman National Minority Commission.Against this the supporters of Mr Azad do not want any change in the leadership when the Assembly election was round the corner.They say that let the AICC leadership give some guidelines to Mr Azad so that he could act on them in order to keep the Congress-PDP alliance in tact.
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