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Congress-PDP talks focus on CMP

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI OCT. 25. The renewed effort to break the stalemate that has prevented the Congress and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) from putting up a coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir began today with leaders of both parties discussing the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) while "leaving'' the contentious issue of chief ministership to be resolved by their presidents.

And, unlike in the first round of negotiations when the PDP president, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, flew to the Capital alone for discussions with the Congress leadership, this time round he was assisted in the discussions by his vice-presidents, Mehbooba Mufti and Muzaffar Hussain Baig.

Without divulging the details about what transpired at the two-hour discussion at the residence of the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, Arjun Singh, said "a lot of ground'' had been covered at today's meeting which focussed "only on the CMP''.

As for the issue of chief ministership, Mr. Singh said it was not taken up at today's meeting, and would be addressed directly by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and Mr. Sayeed in a separate meeting that is yet to be scheduled.

Hopeful of finding a way out of the deadlock — possibly before the weekend is through — the CWC member said the two party presidents would meet after the CMP was finalised.

With discussions on the CMP "still to be concluded'', at least one more meeting is slated for Saturday between the three PDP leaders and the two senior Congressmen before Mr. Sayeed meets Ms. Gandhi. Stating that there were no rough edges, Mr. Singh said the focus of the CMP would be to implement "in the real sense'' the mandate given by the people.

Though the PDP brought some fresh proposals for the CMP, Mr. Singh refused to disclose what they were.

About the absence of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ghulam Nabi Azad, from this evening's discussion, the Congress said he had been involved in preparing the CMP. Even Mr. Baig was asked to join the talks only a good hour after the father-daughter duo arrived at Dr. Singh's residence for discussions.

Earlier, upon arrival in the Capital, Mr. Sayeed projected the CMP as the more crucial issue that needed to be clinched than the question of chief ministership. In fact, both the Congress and the PDP have been maintaining that once the CMP was finalised, all else would fall into place, with Mr. Arjun Singh today going to the extent of stating that discussing the issue of who would lead the government first without finalising the agenda was tantamount to "putting the cart before the horse''.

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