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Saturday,
November 9, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Farooq, Azad to be elected unopposed
Jammu, November 8 On the last day of filing the nomination papers, the National Conference fielded Dr Abdullah, the Congress nominated Mr Azad and Professor Soz and the PDP gave its mandate to Mr Bajwa, President Kisan Union, who had lost the Suchetgarh Assembly seat to Congress candidate, Mr Garoo Ram. Except for Prof Bhim Singh head of the Panthers Party, no other political leader had sought MLAs support for getting elected to the Rajya Sabha. When he found that the wind was unfavourable for him, he did not file his nomination papers on the plea that since a consensus had been worked out among the three principal political parties, the NC, the Congress and the PDP, he would also sacrifice his candidature. Since there was no second contestant on the four seats, which had fallen vacant, Dr Abdullah, Mr Azad, Professor Soz and Mr Bajwa were certain to be elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed. While the Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi, had cleared the name of Professor Soz last evening after rejecting the claim of several aspirants, the PDP was yet undecided till this morning. It was a few hours before the nomination date was to end that the PDP cast its vote in favour of Mr Bajwa, who happens to be close to Mr Mufti.Initially his name was not in the list. His nomination came after an Editor of a local English daily refused to accept the PDP nomination for contesting one of the four Rajya Sabha seats. By picking Mr Bajwa for the Rajya Sabha seat, the Mufti had allowed the Jammu region to have an equal share of seats in the Rajya Sabha. Whereas Dr Abdullah and Professor Soz belong to the Kashmir valley, Mr Azad and Mr Bajwa would represent the Jammu region. In addition, the Chief Minister had fulfilled one of the demands of the Sikh community that wanted representation in the Cabinet and in the Rajya Sabha. Had the Congress-PDP fielded a common candidate against Dr Abdullah, he could have had moments of tension as he fell short of one MLA’s support. Dr Abdullah appreciated the gesture of the new coalition government and as part of thanksgiving gesture he and his son, Mr Omar Abdullah, called on the Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed, in his office chambers in the Civil Secretariat. The Mufti told him that he did not believe in harbouring any political ill-will. He hoped that his government would receive cooperation from all political parties, including the NC, so that the government was able to fulfil the promises made to the people. He said he expected the NC to work as a responsible Opposition party as joint ventures were needed to restore peace in the state. Dr Abdullah is said to have assured to Mufti of his party’s cooperation in constructive work. Today’s meeting between the two political giants is the first interaction since 1982 when the Mufti had called on Dr Abdullah in Srinagar to convey his condolences on the demise of his father, Sheikh Abdullah. As PCC chief, Mufti Mohd Sayeed, had never approached either Sheikh Abdullah or Dr Abdullah for any concession. The Sheikhs treated him as the most vocal political rival and the Mufti had only one-point programme of defeating the Abdullah’s and win power which he had been able to fulfil.  |
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