Sonia Gandhi's decision that Ghulam Nabi Azad, minister of parliamentary affairs in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government will be the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir has brought cheer to the state unit of the Indian National Congress and ended the crisis that had been threatening to break the Jammu and Kashmir Congress party.
Though the top writers, journalists, former bureaucrats and eminent persons had thrown their weight behind Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and had written write-ups in a number of newspapers and magazines and even sent emails in his support saying that the removal of Mufti at this juncture would not help the party and that it would be in the national interest, the constant pressure put by the state Congress legislators forced the party high command to change its mind.
"Resignations or no resignations. The party was united on one issue that the People's Democratic Party should honour its commitment and let the Congress-led government take over the government on November 2, 2005. I am glad that Azad would be the next chief minister of the state," Saifuddin Soz told rediff.com on phone.
According to sources in the Jammu and Kashmir Congress party, all the party ministers in the Mufti government who had been camping in Jammu and Kashmir house in Prithivraj Road and the MLAs who had been staying in Chankayapuri guest house of the state government were summoned to the Congress headquarters on Thursday morning and asked to return to their respective places and also give in writing that they would abide by the decision of the party high command.
"Though the ministers and MLAs continued to say that they would abide by Sonia's decision, not a single one of them gave it in writing. They defied the Congress high command and refused to go back to Jammu or Srinagar. And this forced the party high command to change its mind," the sources claimed.
Sonia had met Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti last week and held discussions with them. Mufti who looked cheerful after the meeting felt assured that he would be allowed to continue.
"Sonia could have given him a couple of months more, but when Sayeed decided to play tough and asked that he should be allowed to continue for the full term, that is when the things started changing. Besides the National Congress was willing to support a Congress government in the event Sayeed backed out of its agreement," said a senior Congress leader from the state.
What has gone unnoticed in this power struggle is the role played by some of the independents who have identified themselves with the Congress party and have become its associate members.
"They put their foot down and refused to lend support to the Sayeed government. Mind you, this is a block of 20 members. Besides Communist Party-Marxist and National Panther's Party headed by Bhim Singh had also refused to support the continuation of Sayeed as the chief minister. All these factors weighed in favour of a Congress-led government," said an independent member of the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly.
In a house of 87, Congress has 20 MLAs, People's Democratic Party has 15 after the murder of Gulam Nabi Lone, education minister of the party. National Conference has 24 MLAs, while there are 20 independents, two CPM MLAs and four of the National Panther's Party.
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