Congress wants to discuss coalition coordination with National Conference: Digvijaya Singh

New Delhi: Veteran leader Digvijaya Singh, senior AICC observer to deal with coalition matters in Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday said Congress leaders had reached out to the National Conference (NC) leadership seeking a discussion on coordination of coalition functioning.

The move comes amid an evident drift in the Congress-NC coalition since the formation of the Omar Abdullah government, following the election in the Union territory, and an apparent uneasiness in the NC over the Congress intensifying its agitation for full statehood to J&K.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi along with AICC general secretary in-charge of J&K Syed Nazir Hussain and senior J&K leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Singh said, "There is a coalition government in J&K and in the coalition government, the Congress party has taken a stand that we will not join the cabinet till the statehood is not granted to J&K. In any coalition government, it is necessary to have coordination. Therefore, me, Nazir Sahib and our J&K PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) and CLP (Congress Legislative Party) leaders will sit and discuss with the National Conference leaders and our other allies. We have to work to fulfill all the promises we have made to the people of J&K".


Though PCC president Tariq Hameed Karra was scheduled to be present at the press conference he didn't turn up, triggering talk that he was unhappy over certain aspects of internal discussions between many J&K Congress leaders and AICC brass on Tuesday but some party functionaries said he was "down with fever". Karra is locked in a fight with a section of J&K leaders.

Singh, Hussain and Mir also spoke against the Centre for delaying its promise to grant statehood to J&K, even as they made it clear that the Congress would step up its agitation over the matter.

Hussain also detailed how the PM had given a promise of reinstating J&K's statehood and how the Centre made similar promises in Parliament and before the Supreme Court.