JAMMU, 11 April 2005 — Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling coalition appears to be in disarray ahead of elections to six seats in the state legislative council today, leading to speculation about its prospects in the polls.
The six members of council, the upper house of the state legislature, are to be elected by the 87 elected members of the assembly, and the fear of cross voting is haunting partners in the team headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
This issue of cross voting has caused rumblings within Sayeed’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Congress and the People’s Democratic Forum (PDF). The only comfort for the ruling side, however, is that even the opposition National Conference is too facing this problem.
Sources said some legislators and ministers were “unhappy” with Sayeed’s style of functioning and are likely to use this opportunity to politically humble him.
The PDP has 18 members, and almost all of them are ministers. Several ministers had walked out of a function at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex here Thursday to protest the non-availability of seats for them at a cultural function to welcome the 30 passengers who arrived on the historic Kashmir bus from Muzzafarabad.
Though Sayeed has tried to soothe ruffled feathers, the slighted leaders are refusing to be pacified, the sources said.
The Congress, on the other hand, is divided between loyalists and opponents of the central Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Despite having an effective strength of 24 in the lower house, the Congress leaders are unsure whether all party legislators would vote for Congress candidates.
Congress leaders said the two groups in the party were working at cross-purposes. The Congress, like PDP, is making every effort to iron out the differences. It is also wooing the 11 legislators of PDF, which had earlier fielded and withdrawn a candidate for the polls. A PDF leader said: “We have yet to decide what course to take.”
A group of dissidents within the National Conference is also threatening to ruin the chances of party candidates.
