New Delhi: The Congress Wednesday said it will not be part of the new Jammu & Kashmir cabinet led by its INDIA ally National Conference despite a pre-poll tie-up, even as newly sworn-in chief minister Omar Abdullah suggested they are still in talks.
The Congress’s announcement came on a day Abdullah took oath of office in the presence of top leaders of the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Akhilesh Yadav, Kanimozhi, Supriya Sule and Prakash Karat.
Congress sources attributed the move to the NC’s unwillingness to offer two cabinet berths. By sitting out of the government, the Congress also hopes to avoid getting sniped at by the BJP on the question of the restoration of Article 370, which the NC is committed to.
The continuation of the Abdullah government would not hinge on the Congress’s support as the NC has already obtained the support of four independent MLAs, taking its strength to 46 in the 90-member assembly, along with one AAP MLA.
In an official statement, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief Tariq Hameed Karra attributed the party’s decision to the pending demand to the Centre for restoration of statehood to J&K, which was downgraded from a state to a Union territory in August 2019 when its special status under Article 370 was also scrapped.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has time and again in public meetings promised that statehood will be restored. But, it has not been done. We are unhappy, therefore, we are not joining the ministry at the moment,” said Karra, adding that the Congress would continue to fight for restoration of statehood to J&K.
However, speaking to PTI, Omar Abdullah suggested that the two parties were still in talks. “It is for the Congress to decide. We have been in discussions with them. Principally around the fact that as a UT with a unicameral house, we don’t have the Upper House. Therefore, the size of the government is severely restricted…Some vacancies would be kept to be filled going ahead as I said we are in talks with Congress but also from within my own team. Let us see how we go,” Abdullah said.
Along with Abdullah, five MLAs — Sakina Masood (Itoo), Javed Dar, Javed Rana, Surinder Choudhary, and Satish Sharma — took oath as ministers. Sharma, who contested and won as an independent candidate after being denied a ticket by the Congress, is among the four independent legislators who pledged their support to the NC after winning.
With their support, the NC’s strength in the 90-member assembly went up to 46, denying Congress the leverage it would have enjoyed in case the survival of the government depended on the support of its six MLAs. The Congress, which contested in as many as 37 seats in the elections, managed to win only six, compared to 12 in the 2014 assembly polls when J&K was a state.
The NC was leaning on the Congress to ensure political representation of the Hindu-dominated Jammu region in the assembly, but the BJP virtually swept the Hindu-dominated seats, dashing the alliance’s hopes. Among the two Hindu MLAs of the NC — Choudhary and Arjun Singh Raju — one has been inducted into the cabinet, while Sharma, the son of the late former Congress MP Madan Lal Sharma, will be the second Hindu face in the Abdullah government.
None among the six Congress MLAs is a Hindu.
A senior Congress leader who was involved in the party’s campaigning in J&K said that the Congress wanted two berths in the government, but it was not in a position to bargain with the NC. “After the NC obtained the support of the four Independents, there was no scope really for any bargaining. Also, most of our MLAs have been ministers in the past. So picking one among them is tricky.”
The Congress’s unease over the NC’s unequivocal demand for the restoration of Article 370, an issue which the party has sought to tiptoe around, was also a factor behind its hesitance in joining the Abdullah cabinet. During poll campaigning, the BJP cornered the Congress on Article 370, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah going to the extent of alleging that the opposition party and Pakistan were on the same page on the issue.
There was a feeling among a section of the Congress leadership that since the party did not perform well, by remaining out of the government, it would at least be less vulnerable to such attacks from the BJP in other states.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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