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| Congress stakes claim for four LC seats | | | Jammu|Jan 17
Even though the coalition partners Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have not yet discussed the issue of seat sharing for nine seats falling vacant in the Legislative Council (upper house) next month, the Congress party is learnt to have staked its claim on four seats.
A spokesman of the Congress party said here today “since we have more than 27 MLAs, we deserve to contest on four of the nine seats”. He said on the basis of strength of opposition National Conference in the Assembly, it could win two seats on its strength. He said that the PDP would be given two seats for contesting with the help of the Congress.
The spokesman said that one remaining seat was to be filled through nomination by the Governor and “in case of any hitch, we shall allow a candidate from the PDP to be nominated for this seat.”
However, PDP General Secretary Nizam-ud-Din Bhat said, “in a coalition Government seats are not shared on the basis of the strength of each partner in the Lower House” adding that the issue had to be decided between the Congress High command the patron of the PDP Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. He indicated that the issue would be first discussed between Mufti Sayeed and Chief Minister Azad. In case of any problem, the issue may ultimately be resolved between the Mufti and the AICC Chief Ms Sonia Gandhi.
Both the Congress spokesman and the PDP leader said, “the two sides will discuss the matter in a spirit of goodwill and in the interest of the survival of the coalition”. The two leaders said that in the past “all ticklish issues” had been resolved “amicably” and there should be no problem in the seat sharing matter this time. The two sides, according to informed sources, were keen to have an agreement on the seat sharing issue so that there was no room for cross voting during the election.
Nizam-ud-Din said that during the by-election in the four Assembly constituencies, the Congress and the PDP had entered the field as allies and expressed his hope that Mufti Mohd.Sayeed will be able to resolve differences, if any, with the Congress on the Council seat sharing.
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