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| NC-Cong alliance hits ‘dead end’ | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 27: The Congress was present at the swearing-in, but not in the government. Although Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Tariq Hamid Karra and other party MLAs attended the oath-taking ceremony of the newly inducted ministers on Tuesday, the Cabinet expansion has effectively marked the end of the Congress’s coalition with the ruling National Conference (NC). At the heart of the rift is a set of demands that the NC leadership turned down.
The Congress had sought the post of Deputy Chief Minister and that of Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. With the NC unwilling to concede either, the party declined to accept the single ministerial berth on offer, choosing to remain outside the Council of Ministers.
There has been no official announcement of a parting of ways, yet both parties appear to have made up their minds. Congress sources said the party leadership has already informed its local leaders that, even without a formal declaration, the party has decided not to be part of the NC-led coalition in the Union Territory.
The reason for the silence, they indicated, lies in national politics. “As both National Conference and PDP are part of the INDI alliance, the Congress leadership has decided not to make any official announcement to break the alliance with NC in Jammu and Kashmir due to its compulsion at national level,” a source said.
In effect, the Congress is attempting a careful balancing act: keeping distance from the NC government in J&K while avoiding a public rupture that could embarrass the opposition bloc at the national level.
Karra’s demeanour at the ceremony was seen by observers as a pointer to where Congress-NC relations are headed. Asked about the party’s presence at the event, he told reporters, “On the invitation of the Lieutenant Governor, we attended the oath-taking ceremony.”
His remark framed the party’s attendance as a response to a constitutional invitation from the Lieutenant Governor and not as a gesture of participation in the NC-led government.
The development comes as the NC government rejigs its ministerial team, inducting four new members and dropping Independent MLA Satish Sharma. The Congress had earlier made clear that it would stay out of the Cabinet expansion, citing the restoration of full statehood as its key demand, even while extending support to the government from outside. |
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