Jammu, March 30
Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed is heading for trouble within his coalition as three of its constituents today fielded their own “rebels” for the Legislative Council seats for which elections would be held on April 11. The major partners in the coalition, PDP and Congress, have shared the six seats among themselves denying the claim of other constituents.

Interestingly, the CPM and the People’s Democratic Forum (PDF), which are partners in the Mufti-led coalition, have fielded Mr Nazir Ahmed Khan as their candidate. Mr Khan is a son of Mr Sarfaraz Khan, who is a leader in the Mufti’s PDP and also a minister in his Cabinet.

Mr Balwant Mankotia of the Panthers Party also supported the candidature of Mr Khan as 10 members are required to back any candidate for filling papers for the council elections.

The Panthers Party of Mr Bhim Singh has itself fielded Mr Mushtaq Ahmed, the state party chief, as the candidate against the ruling coalition nominee.

The Panthers Party, the CPM and the PDF were annoyed that the Congress and the PDP ignored them and did not spare a single seat for them although the Mufti had become Chief Minister only with their support.

Mr Usman Majid, a minister belonging to the PDF, said, “We cannot keep our mouth shut every time the two major partners take us for a ride.”

These developments indicate that the Mufti-led coalition was heading for a fresh trouble. The PDF and the Panthers Party have a grouse that the Mufti denied them seats even during the last Lok Sabha elections. The Panthers Party had fielded its own candidates in the parliamentary elections.

The infighting in the ruling coalition was bound to benefit the opposition National Conference (NC) that was eyeing on council seats beyond the one that it was likely to win with its strength of 27 in the Assembly. The NC had won a Lok Sabha seat in the valley because the PDP and the Congress fielded separate candidates.

Among the stalwarts fielded by the NC is Mr Mohammad Shaffi Uri, who was Education Minister during the party’s regime. He had lost the last Assembly election from Uri and the NC was keen to see him back in the legislature.

In all 15 nominations were filed on the last day today for the six seats of the Upper House. The Congress and the PDP have shared three seats each among themselves, while the NC has fielded candidates on all the six seats to see that no one from the ruling coalition went unopposed.

Mr Abdul Gani Vakil, Mr Ashok Sharma, Mr Shivdev Singh (all Congress) and Mr Tassadaq Hussain, Mr Basharat Bukhari and Mr Nizamuddin Khatana (all PDP) filed their papers.

The NC candidates who filed their nominations are Mr Mohammad Shaffi, Ms Sakina Ittoo, Mr T.S. Wazir, Mr Abdul Karim Wani, Mr Mohammad Rashid and Mr Nassar Khan.

Jammu, March 30
Agitated over inflated telephone bills and “inordinate delays in issuing bills” subscribers,aided by groups of people, raided the BSNL office in Rajouri today.

The office premises was ransacked by the sloganshouting mob which broke furniture.The protesters manhandled BSNL officials after a large number of subscribers found that their landline and mobile phone bills were inflated.

Pradeep Kumar said, “I have received a bill for Rs 2,400 and on verification the actual amount was found to be Rs 240.”

He said in many cases the billed amount was 100 to 200 per cent more than the actual amount.

The police was summoned to restore order when three BSNL officials received minor injuries during the scuffle with the protesters.

In Jammu city, a large number of cell phone subscribers had been forced to clear the bills after paying surcharge. Many others’ cell phones were disconnected on the charge of non-payment of bills.

A number of cell phone subscribers told The Tribune that the BSNL had almost stopped sending the mobile phone bills by post or courier.One failed to get the bill on time even on the internet.

Ajay Kumar said, “Even after I had cleared my mobile phone bills on time, my cell phone was disconnected and I had to waste one day to get the connection restored.”

Others said the BSNL officials had informed “us that the intimation about the pending bills is sent through SMS but we do not even receive the SMS on time.”