Cong meet triggers buzz of shift in J&K

A high-level working group of the Congress on Jammu & Kashmir met here on Monday, kicking off speculation about the party exploring new political possibilities in the strife-torn state.

A meeting of 100 senior Congress leaders has also been called in Srinagar on Tuesday to discuss the future strategy for the party in Jammu & Kashmir, where the BJP pulled out of the coalition government led by Mehbooba Mufti last month.

Former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been camping in the national capital since Friday but the much-anticipated meeting between her and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was yet to materialise.

AICC General Secretary in charge of J&K Ambika Soni scotched the speculation that it was cosying up to the PDP yet again.

She said the Congress has already made it clear that fresh Assembly elections should be held in the state soon indicating that the party was not keen on getting into a kind of rag-tag coalition government at this juncture.

“There is no question of any coalition. Our demand has been fresh elections after the situation stabilises in J&K,” Ghulam Ahmed Mir, President of the J&K Congress told DH after the meeting of the AICC’s Policy Planning Group on J&K, chaired by former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

After the two-hour meeting, the leaders resolved that the Congress should focus on strengthening the organisation in all the three regions of the state — Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The policy planning group comprises senior leaders Karan Singh, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Rigzin Zora, Tariq Hameed Karra, Mir and Shyam Lal Sharma.

Mir said the party has decided to focus on strengthening its organisational capabilities in all the three regions of the state and earn the goodwill of the people before the Assembly elections. Mir said the Congress had played its role in 2014 when it offered to form the government in J&K along with the NC and the PDP after the Assembly polls threw up a hung verdict. “But the situation has changed now. The BJP-PDP government had vitiated the atmosphere in the state. It is now for the governor to take a Constitutional decision,” he said