Thursday, Oct 24, 2002
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By Anita Joshua
As of now, the PDP president, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, is scheduled to reach here on Friday and hold talks with the Congress leadership to break the deadlock that has prevented the two potential allies from coming together to form a government a fortnight after the Assembly election results were declared. The PDP's willingness to make another effort to iron out the differences came within 12 hours of the Congress indicating that it would stake claim without the PDP's support, and in the wake of the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, stating this morning that a minority government was an option that could be explored given the fragmented nature of the new Assembly. The decision to resume talks was taken at a meeting of a few senior party leaders at 10 Janpath after the PDP vice-president, Mehbooba Mufti, telephoned the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, this morning to express her party's willingness to hold further talks. According to the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh — who had been sent to Srinagar last weekend to break the impasse — Mehbooba Mufti told Ms. Gandhi that the PDP was ready to sort out all differences and work towards providing a stable government. After the telephonic conversation between Ms. Gandhi and Mehbooba Mufti, Dr. Singh called up Mr. Sayeed and invited him to Delhi for talks. Without divulging details on the issues that would be discussed, he said the proposals put forth by him during his Srinagar visit would be considered along with some fresh PDP proposals. The Congress is learnt to have offered Mehbooba Mufti the post of Deputy Chief Minister and Mr. Sayeed the chairmanship of the Coordination Committee. Also, the Congress had suggested a rotational arrangement with representatives of both parties occupying the office of Chief Minister for three years. For now, the Congress `strong-arm' tactic appears to have paid off with the PDP extending the olive branch soon after the national party decided to go it alone following the `failure' of the `Manmohan mission'. That the PDP has made a climbdown is evident from the fact that Mehbooba Mufti's call was preceded by some tough posturing last night when the party said it would prefer to sit in the Opposition rather than give up its claim to Chief Ministership. But, eager as ``Ms. Gandhi is to consolidate the mandate to provide a viable and credible alternative to fulfil the aspirations of the people of the State,'' senior leaders were unwilling to reveal the party's hand for fear of `pre-empting' the negotiations. Still, while indications are that the party would not give up its insistence on leading the government, leaders maintained that they would negotiate with an `open mind'.
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