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| Choosing successor to Peerzada as party unit president posing problems for Congress | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Jan 21
The vacancy caused by the resignation of Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed as President of J&K Pradesh Congress Committee is not likely to be filled for the time being, it is reliably learnt. The All India Congress President, Sonia Gandhi will take her own time and have broad consultations with party leaders, including in the middle rung in the state as well as various leaders of the party at the national level, representing various shades of opinion and group interests, before taking the final decision in the matter. In fact quitting of the post of Pradesh Congress Committee President by Peerzada, as a result of serious charges of corruption leveled against him at the floor of the state assembly, by an MLA, has come as a bolt from the blue for the party at a time when it was gearing up for forthcoming assembly elections in the state, scheduled late this year. The development has created a piquant situation for the party, which though not insurmountable but is creating several complications in selecting the successor to the Peerzada. Any immediate filling of the vacancy will create an impression of the fate of Peerzada having been sealed and the party high command being convinced of the charges against him substantiated, which impression the party high command and particularly the President Sonia Gandhi does not like to convey, particularly at a time when the Congress was pinning high hopes of its much better performance in the assembly elections this time than in the year 2002.
Nevertheless, the suspense and uncertainty in the matter cannot be allowed to prolong beyond certain time and a new President has to be installed much before the state assembly elections, to give the party a proper shape and bring it in full preparedness for the next elections. Many options are being considered and their feasibility evaluated. One alternative being considered is that the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad should also head the party in the state, till the next elections, so that no second power centre is creatsed in the party in the state. For this the rule of one person one post shall have to be compromised, as a special case, but not to become a precedent. Already this rule was not being followed strictly, since Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed was simultaneously holding two posts of Pradesh party President and Cabinet Minister. The other alternative being considered is that the opinion of the Chief Minister should be given the maximum weight and a person of the choice of Azad should head the state unit. In this regard the names of newly inducted Cabinet Minister and a close confident of Azad, Abdul Gani Vakil as well as of another Cabinet Minister Taj Mahiuddin are being hotly considered.
However, the detractors of Ghulam Nabi Azad in the centre as well as in the state are lying stress on a whole time President of the party in the state, which means a person who does not hold any position in the government should head the state unit of the party, to pay maximum attention to the party work in the election year. In this context the name of a former Pradesh party President and presently member Rajya Sabha Mohammad Aslam is also being considered. But those at the centre who want Ghulam Nabi Azad to be cut to size are canvassing for some highly senior party leader from the state of the stature of Azad to head the state party unit. In this regard the names of another former Pradesh party President and presently member of Minorities Commission Mohammad Shafi Qurashi and Union Cabinet Minister Saif-ud-Din Soz are being hotly favoured by a section of central leaders. But being a Union Cabinet Minister, heading the state party unit by Soz will not let him do full justice with the job, it is being argued. Further Soz is a recent entrant in the party and does not have the required rapport with the party functionaries and rank and file in the state. Further he is considered to be favourably inclined towards PDP and its Kashmir centric and separatist friendly postures, which will adversely affect the party prospects in Jammu region, from where party calculates to win the largest number of seats. As for Mohammad Shafi is concerned, although he is considered to be the pioneer in setting up a unit of the Congress in the state, during Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad's premiership, when there was no independent unit of Congress in the state and the ruling party in J&K, National Conference was only affiliated with Congress, but he is now too old to bear the heavy burden to head the party unit in J&K and keep the flock together. |
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