NC, Congress on coalition way

Vikash Ranjan

New Delhi

Mon, 29 Dec 2008: 

The coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, most probable of Congress and National Conference, will clear on Monday after the meeting of Congress president Sonia Gandhi with its state party leaders, including former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz.

The Congress core group, including ime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi met, though, on Sunday to take stock of the state assembly outcome and chalk out the future course of strategy but deferred the decision for Monday.

It is, however, learnt that National Conference (NC) is being considered as a natural ally.

The Congress, which is in position of playing the role of kingmaker, has the option of either going with its former ally People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which bagged 21 seats or the single largest party NC (28 seats).

Though no formal announcement has been made yet and may take a few days, there are plenty of indications that the Congress will like to go this time with the National Conference who fought the election on developmental issue instead of BJPs communalism or PDPs secessionism, which has also been against the Congress’ poll issue.

“Our attempt would be to give a stable and lasting government to the state,” said Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari on Sunday.

Congress acquired this time (17seats) three seats short of last assembly polls, while the BJP carved out a large chunk of vote percentage, mainly Hindus from Jammu, as it put 11 seats into its bag, 10 more than the earlier assembly elections — a sharp gain from exploiting the Amarnath land row, which also caused the dissolution of House, in its favour.

The PDP, on the other hand, the second biggest political force, also reaped the benefit over the same issue, which led it pull support from the Congress-PDP alliance, in terms of number of seats (21): 5 more than the 2002 assembly polls. Congress perhaps would not like to go with PDP, which is more in favour of the state autonomy and improved relations with Pakistan.

NC though lost some vote share 7.1 percent this time but managed to intact the previous 28 seats. With sum total of 45 (Congress 17 and NC 28) in the 87-member House they are well in position to form the coalition government.

Many NC leaders, including president Omar Abdullah and patron Dr. Farooq Abdullah, have given clear indications that they would like to make alliance with the Congress.

Although there was some confusion over who would be the chief minister — the father or the son — Congress said that it was their internal decision and it had nothing to do with it. It is, however, learnt that Omar Abdullah, who is also the brother-in-law of Congress MP Sachin Pilot, is nearest to Sonia Gandhi and her favourite too.

Confusion remained prevailed within the NC too, with Dr. Abdullah wanted to make his son the chief minister considering lots of things to be done and a younger chief minister would be deemed fit in this role, whereas some senior leaders were in favour of the patron.

Omar Abdullah did not pass any comment on this matter saying he would like to be guided by his father. Omar also told media that the party was not setting any preconditions to Congress for forming the government rather the party was in favour of a stable alliance so as to bring peace and prosperity of the state.

Earlier on Sunday — the D-Day when the result came — hailing the verdict of the J&K election outcome as “vote for democracy”, both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi said it was “secondary issue” as to who wins or who loses. More importantly, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have placed their full faith in the “democratic system” and this lesson must be learnt by our neighbour, apparently Pakistan.