New Delhi/SRINAGAR, 26 October — A group of legislators from Jammu and Kashmir yesterday mounted pressure on the Congress party and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to form a coalition government in the state, saying their rift was causing dismay.
The People’s Democratic Forum said the Congress and the PDP — deadlocked on the issue of choosing a leader for a coalition government — should show a "sense of accommodation" and honor the Kashmiri people’s mandate for good governance.
"The people’s mandate is clear. They have voted for a change and for a coalition government," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) legislator and PDF chief Yusuf Tarigami told reporters here.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting here between PDP chief Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for a last ditch effort to forge a coalition more than two weeks after elections in Kashmir threw up a hung assembly.
But in a change of plan, Sayeed met Manmohan Singh to discuss the government formation.
Sayeed was accompanied by PDP Vice President Muzaffar Hussain Beig.
Congress sources said Sonia would only meet Sayeed if the meeting with Singh and other senior party leaders failed to arrive at a consensus on government formation.
The PDP sources refused to divulge details regarding what Sayeed would be bargaining for during his talks with Congress leaders.
However, they said Sayeed was expected to accept the offer of rotational chief ministership with his party taking the first shot at the post.
The sources said that he would also suggest that the chief minister’s post be rotated between the two parties every 18 months instead of proposed three years.
Meanwhile, Tarigami, said, "The people who braved (militant) threats and bullets during the poll have been witnessing a sorry spectacle over the past 15 days," Tarigami said.
"It was expected that egos and partisan interests would be given the goby so that the people’s mandate could be carried forward."
The PDF, which has the support of five independents and two CPM members, is expected to play a major role in propping up a coalition in the 87-member assembly.
The grouping has indicated it will support a Congress-PDP coalition, but Tarigami refused to say whether it would join the government.
"The real issues of Kashmir have been pushed back and non-issues have taken the front seat," he said, referring to differences between the Congress and the PDP.
The PDP, which has 16 seats in the 87-member assembly, insists that the chief minister should be from the Kashmir Valley, where it fared better than the Congress.
The Congress, which won most of its 20 seats from the Jammu region, wants its state President Ghulam Nabi Azad to be the chief minister.
"What is needed is a stable coalition and to run it there should be a sense of accommodation among all parties," said Tarigami. "Coalition politics is a new experience for Jammu and Kashmir."
