Jammu, October 15
Following refusal by the PDP to join a coalition government with Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad as Chief Minister, the Congress has mobilised all its resources to woo not only the Independent candidates but even those belonging to the PDP. The most surprising aspect of the horsetrading has been that even the lone BJP member of the Assembly, Mr Jugal Kishore, who won the seat from Nagrota, has been taken to Srinagar by the Congress leaders and since yesterday he stands in the captivity of the party.
While being whisked away to Srinagar he was shown newspaper reports in which the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, had announced the Centre would cooperate with any government in Kashmir. A couple of Congress leaders convinced him that if he supported the Congress he too would get a berth in the Cabinet. Mr Jugal Kishore had phoned a party colleague in Jammu who advised him to rush back to the winter capital but till this evening there was nothing known about his whereabouts.
As the deadline for staking claim for the formation of the government was drawing near the state was flooded with rumours. One rumour was that the Congress had already won over the support of three to four PDP legislators. However, those who had agreed to join the Congress are said to have developed second thoughts after one Independent candidate from Zadibal, Mr Shah Jehan Dar, faced a demonstration in which people booed him for having joined the NC which forced him to promptly deny the report.
Inside reports said the Congress was trying to win over to its side at least 10 NC MLAs so that in the formation of a Congress-headed coalition government there was no need to back on the support from the PDP. These reports said if 10 NC MLAs defected to the Congress they would not invite the provisions of the anti-defection law and even if three PDP MLAs crossed over to the Congress there is no fear of the axe of antidefection law falling on them as the PDP is not a recognised party by the Election Commission.
