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| Gupkar Road wants Chewang as ‘consensus candidate’ | | NC-Cong stand-off continues on Leh in CC meet | |
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Apr 4: The first ever meeting of the Coordination Committee of the ruling coalition partners here today failed to resolve the stand-off on the Leh-Kargil constituency as National Conference (NC) staked its claim on the state’s “second safest seat” over the logic that it had bagged three of the four segments in the recent Assembly elections in Ladakh region. In its last-ditch efforts to protect the local camaraderie with the Budhhist votebank, NC is now understood to have projected former LBA Chief, Thuptsan Chewang, as the “consensus candidate”.
CC’s crucial meeting on the seat sharing between the coalition partners took place at Dr Farooq Abdullah’s Gupkar Road residence which received an unusual guest, Prof Saif-ud-din Soz, probably for the first time after he quit NC in 1999. Now a Union Minister and J&K Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Soz participated in the meeting alongwith his party colleagues, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and former Deputy CM, Mangat Ram Sharma. NC was represented by Dr Abdullah, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs Abdul Rahim Rather.
Informed sources revealed that NC stuck to its logic that it should field a candidate in Ladakh as it had bagged three of the four segments in that region in the November-2008 Assembly elections. According to it, Congress should contest in Anantnag-Pulwama as the party had bagged two segments (Kokernag, Dooru) in South Kashmir and the NC only one (Noorabad). Besides, CPI (M) State Secretary, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami (MLA Kulgam), was also being known as an “Associate Member” of Congress.
NC leadership is also said to be holding the belief that fielding a Congress candidate in Anantnag and an NC candidate in Leh would boost the secular and inclusive image of both the ruling parties.
Sources said that, on the other hand, Congress wanted to share all three sets of the seats---safest, weakest and neutral---on “equal basis” between the two parties. While Srinagar-Budgam is being rated as NC’s “safest seat” and Anatnag-Pulwama as the “weakest seat”, Leh-Kargil and Jammu-Poonch are being widely viewed Congress party’s “safest” and “weakest” constituencies. While NC has 50:50 prospects in Baramulla-Kupwara, Congress has a similar position in Udhampur-Doda. Congress leadership’s logic is that there could be equal prospects for the coalition partners only when the seats would be shared on this basis.
Sources said that after several hours of deliberation, NC had begun to evolve a different mechanism which could protect its local alliance with the Budhhists in Ladakh and, on the other hand, safeguard the statistics for Congress. According to sources, a section of the NC leadership, which earlier insisted on the nomination of former MP Ghulam Hassan Khan, had begun to project the neutralizer of fielding former LBA as the coalition’s “consensus candidate”. This, according to sources, could be strongly resisted by Congress party’s MLA from Leh and Minister incharge Tourism, Nawang Rigzin Jora, who had defeated NC-supported Chewand in a bitter contest with comfortable margin in recent Assembly elections.
Later, speaking to mediapersons, leaders of both the parties expressed optimism that the stand-off on Ladakh would be resolved “in the next two days”.
Both, NC as well as Congress, are shying away from South Kashmir as it is being rated PDP’s one-odd sure seat in J&K. While PDP had swept all six segments in Pulwama, it had bagged all but four seats (Cong 2, NC and CPM one each) in Anantnag district, in the Assembly elections. Besides, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter, Mehbooba, have retained this Lok Sabha seat in 1998 and 2004 general elections as well as in by-elections.
In a significant development, meanwhile, PDP has now projected former MLA of Shangus, Pir Mohammad Hussain, as its candidate from Anantnag-Pulwama. Sources said that Mufti Sayeed had finally decided not to contest the Lok Sabha elections. However a final decision is likely to be taken here in the next two days. Sources said that PDP had finally shortlisted Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Saif-ud-din Bhat, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura and Abdul Rashid Kabuli for Srinagar-Budgam after Tariq Hameed Qarra was found to be disinclined to contest. According to these sources, party had unanimously favoured Dilawar Mir as its candidate from Baramulla-Kupwara.
While PDP is likely to announce the names of its candidates at a news conference here on Monday, sources said that on that day itself NC’s “Core Group” would meet and finalise the party’s candidates for all three of its Lok Sabha seats as well as the Assembly segments of Hazratbal and Sonwar, both rendered vacant due to election of Dr Abdullah as a member of Rajya Sabha in February last. Dr Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, NC’s General Secretary Sheikh Nazir Ahmed besides Mohammad Shafi Uri, Abdul Rahim Rather, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Chowdhary Mohamnmad Ramzan are members of the NC’s “Core Group”. |
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