The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PDP, Cong finalise seat-sharing
M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 27
Senior Congress and PDP leaders were engaged in finalising seat-sharing arrangement in the Council of Ministers to be headed by Mr Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

Informed sources said the Congress high command had received reports of discontent among Jammu residents over the way Ms Sonia Gandhi denied Jammu a chance to have a leader from the region as the Chief Minister for the first time in the past 55 years. It is in this connection that the Congress has already sounded Mr Sayeed to have a senior Congress leader from Jammu as the Deputy Chief Minister.

Barring Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, PCC chief, all those who matter in the AICC favour the candidature of Mr Mangat Ram Sharma for the post of the Deputy Chief Minister. According to the sources, Mr Sayeed is willing to have an experienced leader like Mr Sharma as the Deputy Chief Minister. Mr Azad had been toying with the idea of installing Mr Sharma as the Speaker of the Assembly, which other Congress leaders have not accepted.

The state Morcha led by the RSS, besides several Congress men, have expressed their dissatisfaction over the way a Jammu resident, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, was forced to lose the race for the Chief Minister’s post. And if Mr Mangat Ram Sharma is appointed the Deputy Chief Minister it would not only pacify the angry Congress men, but also fulfil the basic recommendation of the Gajendragadkar Commission of having a Deputy Chief Minister from Jammu in case the Chief Minister was from the valley.

Indications are that there will be a three-tier ministry as a number of Independent MLAs have to be accommodated to allow the PDP-Congress coalition smooth sailing in the House where it has to seek the vote of confidence within a month.

Since the coalition has to bank on eight independent candidates for its survival, the size of the ministry is expected to be large. The Congress probables include Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, Peerzada Mohammed Syed, Taj Mohiuddin, Mohammed Shafi Bhat, Mr Moola Ram, Ms Suman Bhagat, Mr Madan Lal Sharma, Mr Raman Bhalla, Mr Sharif Naaz, Mr Tara Chand, Mr Yogesh Sawhney, Mr Ghulam Mohammed and Mr Abdul Rashid.

The PDP probables include Ms Mehbooba Mufti, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beg, Mr Javed Mir, Dr Ghulam Nabi Lone, Gazi Mohammed Afzal, Mr Ghulam Hassan Mir, Mohammed Khalil, Mr Ghulam Hassan Bhat and Mr Ghulam Hassan Khan.

In case Mr Sayeed does not include his daughter in the Council of Ministers and give her the job of revitalising the party, the chances of inducting the Congress MLA from R.S. Pora, Ms Suman Lata Bhagat, are bright. The Congress and the PDP may share two nominated seats. Ms Khem Lata Wakhloo, who lost to the National Conference in the Sonawar constituency, may be nominated by the Congress.

Since only one Sikh candidate, Mr Manjit Singh, has been elected to the Assembly on BSP ticket, he could be considered to represent the community in the Council of Ministers. The BSP supremo may not allow him to join hands with the Congress but Mr Manjit Singh can defect to the PDP without violating the provisions of the anti-defection law.

As far as the Kashmiri Pandit community is concerned, the Farooq-led Cabinet had no representation of the Pandits after the demise of P.L. Handoo over a year ago. This time, his son-in-law, Mr Raman Mattoo, has won the Habba Kadal seat as an Independent candidate and as such he stands a chance.

Among the non-Congress and non-PDP probables are Mr Ghulam Mohammed Sofi (Handwara), Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami (Kulgam), Mr Harsh Dev Singh, Panthers Party, and Mr Manohar Lal (Billawar).

Mufti — a man of many parties
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 27
After a gap of more than 27 years, a non-NC government to be headed by the PDP leader, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, is being installed in Jammu and Kashmir.

A former Union Home Minister, Mr Sayeed, who has held several ministerial positions in the state, headed the state unit of the Congress from 1975 to 1987. He will be the first Chief Minister not belonging to the National Conference or the Sheikh’s family. He had a long association with the Congress ever since his introduction to politics in 1950. He also joined the National Conference, and later the Democratic National Conference. Then, in 1999, he constituted his regional political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The PDP was constituted after his daughter, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, resigned from the Congress and membership of the Legislative Assembly on July 23, 1999.

Mr Sayeed became the Union Minister for Tourism in the Rajiv Gandhi’s government in 1986, and resigned after the 1987 Rajiv-Farooq accord, which led to the formation of the first Congress-NC coalition government in the state. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1987 and in 1992 and resigned in 1996.

He became the Union Home Minister in 1989 in Mr V.P. Singh’s government after winning elections as a Jan Morcha candidate from Muzaffarnagar in UP. He also contested Lok Sabha elections from Bihar, but was unsuccessful. As the Union Home Minister, Mr Sayeed hit the headlines following the kidnapping of his daughter, Dr Rubiya Sayeed, by militants in December, 1989.

Mr Sayeed was first elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in 1967 as a Congress candidate from his home constituency of Beijbehara in Anantnag district, and was elevated to the state Legislative Council in 1972.

Born in 1936 at Beijbehara, he studied at SP College, Srinagar and got his post-graduation and law degrees from Aligarh Muslim University. He started his career as a lawyer in Anantnag in the sixties.

Of his three daughters and a son, the eldest daughter, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, has joined her father in politics and was first elected from her home constituency of Beijbehara as a Congress candidate in 1996 elections. His wife, Ms Gulshan, also unsuccessfully contested from Pahalgam constituency in the 1996 elections. Ms Mehbooba Mufti was — for the second time — elected from the Pahalgam constituency by defeating the NC candidate.

Mr Sayeed’s agenda in the recently concluded elections was focussed on giving a healing touch to the suffering people of the state, particularly in the valley.

	Six months to get elected Tribune News Service Jammu, October 27 For Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who is not a member of either the Assembly or the Legislative Council, there are two alternatives for him to retain the Chief Minister’s post — to get elected to either the lower or the upper House within six months. Clause 2 of Section 37 of the state Constitution provides “a minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of either House of legislature shall upon the expiry of that period cease to be a minister.” Under the Constitution, it is mandatory for the Mufti, who has been picked up to head the Congress-PDP coalition, to find a berth in either House of the legislature within six months from the date he takes over. All 87 seats in the Assembly have been filled and if one of his party MLAs vacates a constituency, the Mufti could contest the byelection. In this case, one party MLA, Mr Abdul Rehman Veeri, who won from the Bijbehara constituency, has offered to vacate the seat for the PDP supremo. However, supporters of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed have advised him to prefer getting elected to the Legislative Council to seeking a people’s mandate from Bijbehara or any other constituency in south Kashmir considered to be the PDP stronghold. Their argument is that wishes of voters cannot be taken for granted all the time. They cite the instance of three elections which the Mufti contested from Bijbehara and was defeated by an NC lightweight, Mr Abdul Gani Veeri, twice. During his 30-year long political career, Mufti Sayeed has never won an Assembly seat from the valley. Once he was elected to the lower House from the R.S. Pora constituency in Jammu. In the 1998 Lok Sabha election, he had defeated the NC candidate from the Anantnag constituency. In 1984, when the Congress engineered defections in the National Conference, Mr G.M. Shah, brother-in-law of Dr Farooq Abdullah, became the Chief Minister. For about two years he was in the Chief Minister’s chair on the strength of being a Member of the Upper House. Hence, the Mufti could play safe and seek election to the Legislative Council where several seats were falling vacant within one month.
	Supporters rejoice Tribune News Service Srinagar, October 27 The police today was kept busy tightening security in and around the private residence of the Chief Minister designate, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, at Naogam on the outskirts of the town amidst rejoicing by his supporters, while Congress leaders of Jammu seemed crestfallen with the denial of the top slot to Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad. The ITBP personnel took up positions around the residence of the Mufti. Material for installing security gadgets was brought to the residence by the police. Ms Gulshan Ara, wife of the Mufti, received guests who made a beeline to congratulate the family. A large crowd of supporters of the Mufti were seen squatting in the sun on the lawns outside. The Mufti is expected to arrive here tomorrow to stake claim for government formation.
	‘SOG disbanding to hit fight against ultras’ Tribune News Service Srinagar, October 27 While disbanding of the SOG of the Jammu and Kashmir police has been on top of the PDP agenda, the Army authorities here believe that the move would lead to certain difficulties in their fight against militants in Kashmir. Lt-Gen V.G. Patankar, GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, said here this evening that it would, instead, affect the operations by the police against militants. Talking to mediapersons, General Patankar said the SOG had been “quite a good source of information” on militants to the security forces. However, he claimed, the security forces would have to do without the SOG (Special Operations Group) or Special Task Force of the police in their fight against the militants in Kashmir.
	2 Independent losers to sue EC for ‘rigging’ Srinagar, October 27 A fortnight after the declaration of Assembly election results in Jammu and Kashmir, two Independent candidates of the Democratic People’s Forum yesterday threatened to move court against “massive rigging and manipulations of election results”. Abdul Haq and Ghulam Qadir Mir, two defeated candidates from Lolab and Kupwara Assembly segments, respectively, threatened to move court against the Election Commission for the alleged manipulations of the results. “Several gross irregularities were committed in the poll process and brought before Election Commission observers from time to time,” Haq told reporters here. Terming the Election Commission’s “attitude” as “unfortunate”, he said the observers did not pay attention to even media reports and photographs showing minors casting votes. Both Haq and Mir said they would take legal action if the EC failed to deliver justice. “We don’t even mind going to the people and exposing the so-called free and fair elections with documentary proofs we have collected in these two weeks,” they said. To a question on delay in levelling these allegations, the candidates said, “We had been collecting documents to file a petition in the court.” PTI

2 ultras among 5 killed in J&K

Srinagar, October 27
Five persons, including two militants, were killed and two army men injured in separate incidents while a Hizbul Mujahideen militant surrendered in Jammu and Kashmir since last night, an official spokesman said today.

A Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant, Bashir Ahmad Khan was killed in an encounter with a BSF search party at Shejanpanzoo village near Tral in Pulwama district of south Kashmir today. An AK rifle and two magazines were recovered from his possession, the spokesman said.

In another encounter at Bhati Dhar in Mendhar area of Poonch district, army men killed an unidentified militant during search operations today. A pistol, its magazine with four rounds and two grenades were recovered from the slain militants.

A civilian, Mohammad Mushtaq, was also killed in the crossfire, the spokesman added.

He said another civilian, Manzoor Ahmad Sofi, who was injured in a grenade explosion in Pulwama last week, succumbed to his injuries at a hospital today.

Militants shot dead a schoolteacher at his village at Deval-Mahore in Udhampur district today, he said.

The spokesman said a Junior Commissioned Officer was injured when militants opened fire on Army personnel at Panjal-Surankote in Poonch district today. PTI