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| NC rebel Soz is J&K Congress chief | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Feb 13
The wait is over and the formal announcement is out. A “guest in the house” has been decorated by title of the head of family. A new entrant in the party, the Union Minister for Water Resources Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz is the new president of Jammu and Kashmir unit of Congress. He replaces Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed who was sacked the Education Minister and PCC Chief last month on allegations of corruption.
Soz, it may be recalled here, had joined the Congress some five years back after a long stint with the National Conference. In fact, he was expelled by the National Conference in 1999 after he abstained voting on the Lok Sabha which resulted into fall of the then 13 months old Vajpayee government.
The formal announcement of Soz’s appointment as President of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee was made today in New Delhi by AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi after the orders of appointment were approved by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Along with Soz, two other Union Ministers were also sent as presidents of the party units in their home states. Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has been made president of West Bengal PCC while Minister of State for grievances Suresh Pachouri is to head Madhya Pradesh which along with Jammu and Kashmir goes to polls later this year.
Though name of Soz as frontrunner for the post of PCC chief was hot in circulation immediately after resignation of Peerzada but formal orders were not issued. This significant development comes a day after Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had a meeting with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. It is reliably learnt that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi had called Chief Minister in Delhi for a meeting so as to take him into confidence before the decision was announced.
Later this evening, an official spokesman for the Chief Minister claimed that Azad has welcomed the appointment of Union Minister for Water Resources, Prof. Saifuddin Soz as President, J&K Pradesh Congress Committee.
The Chief Minister described Prof Soz as an able politician whose rich experience would benefit the party in Jammu & Kashmir. The Chief Minister also telephoned Prof. Soz to congratulate him on assuming new responsibilities, said the spokesman.
The spokesman added, “the announcement of Prof. Soz's appointment as head of the Congress party in J&K was made less than 24 hours after the Chief Minister met the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday and urged her to make the formal announcement of Prof Soz's appointment as JKPCC Chief as had been decided earlier”.
Sources said that the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azadi and a large section of Congress leaders in the state are not happy with the appointment of Soz as PCC chief. There are two major reasons for this displeasure. One main reason is that Soz is primarily a man of the National Conference who is being honoured by the Congress high command for being instrumental in the fall of BJP government in 1999. He does not have any ideological binding or organizational association with the Congress. The second reason being talked about in the Congress circles is that in the election year appointment of a powerful Union Minister as J&K PCC chief on one hand will see little devotion from him and on the other hand will result into emergence of a parallel power center and ultimately a confusion.
It may be mentioned here that a section of Congress opposed to crowing of Soz had made several attempts over last three weeks to stall this decision. Social Welfare Minister Abdul Ghani Vakil and Higher Education Minister Gulchain Singh Charak are reported to intensively lobbied in Delhi against appointment of Soz as PCC chief. |
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