The Hindu : Cong. focus on getting enough MLAs in J&K

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 12, 2002

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Cong. focus on getting enough MLAs in J&K

By Anita Joshua

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, with the Jammu and Kashmir PCC chief, Ghulam Nabi Azad, at a CWC meeting in New Delhi on Friday. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

NEW DELHI OCT. 11. The flush of victory within the Congress on Thursday over the Jammu and Kashmir election results seemed to pale within 24 hours in the teeth of the nitty-gritty of coalition politics, and the party tonight was non-committal on whether or not it would lead the next government in the State.

Contrary to the assertive stance it struck on Thursday when the party's central leadership maintained that the logic of politics mandated that the Congress lead the coalition as it had more MLAs, the official line after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) met here this evening was that "it is too early'' to say which party or who would head the Government.

Briefing mediapersons after the CWC meeting, the spokesman, S. Jaipal Reddy, said the party was at present focusing all its energy on getting enough MLAs. "Right now, the Congress and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) do not account for 51 per cent of the members in the new Assembly. These are still early days, and we need more time. We do not want to say anything that will come in the way of forging an alliance with like-minded parties who fought this election to beat the National Conference (NC).''

On who would be the party's likely candidate for Chief Minister should it decide to lead the coalition, Mr. Reddy said that "first, we need to reach an understanding with all like-minded parties'' which include the PDP, CPI(M), Panthers Party and independents. Further, he said, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi who was authorised by the CWC to take a decision on government formation would talk to senior party leaders and other State leaders in the coming days.

About the reported reluctance on the part of the J&K Pradesh Congress president, Gulam Nabi Azad, to become Chief Minister in the eventuality of the Congress staking its claim to form the Government, Mr. Reddy said: "Once the Congress president decides, the matter will be sorted out.''

Later talking to mediapersons at the AICC headquarters, Ms. Gandhi said it was still too early to say anything. However, she reiterated the party's commitment to provide an alternative to the NC. After the CWC, Ms. Gandhi was closeted in a meeting with Mr. Azad and her political secretary, Ambika Soni, for well over half-an-hour.

Mr. Azad briefed the CWC about the elections and said the Congress would have done better had it entered into a pre-poll alliance

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