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Onkar Singh in Srinagar
A senior leader of the People's Democratic Party told rediff.com the entire Kashmir would 'go up in flames' if the post of the chief minister did not go to a person from the valley.
"We have defeated the National Conference in the valley and hence the right of chief ministership goes to the PDP and Kashmir [valley] alone," the leader said on Saturday night.
Asked what was wrong if the chief ministership goes to someone from outside the Kashmir valley, the PDP top gun said that it was the people of Kashmir who were suffering and facing militancy and not the people of Jammu region.
PDP chief Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is in New Delhi and holding talks with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the formation of a coalition government in the state.
Mufti has been pressing the Congress chief for the chief ministership. Congress leader and Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ghulam Nabi Azad has also staked his claim to lead the new government.
Muzaffar Hussain Baig, vice-president of the PDP, said, "Kashmir is already in flames. The need of the hour is the put down these flames, instead of giving them a fresh lease of life. I am hopeful that the matter would be settled amicably between the two parties by tomorrow [Monday]."
Senior Congress leader Professor Saifuddin Soz described the top PDP leader's statement as childish. "I can tell you that nothing of this sort is going to happen even if the new chief minister is from Jammu region," he said.
Professor Soz has been summoned to Delhi by the party high command and he could emerge as a compromise candidate for the chief ministership, should Mufti continue to insist for the top job. The Congress has 20 MLAs in the new assembly, while the PDP has only 16.
Even if the two join hands, they will have to seek the support of the independents and smaller parties to form the government.
Meanwhile the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chandra Saxena, has invited leaders of all the political parties to come and discuss with him the process of formation of a new government.
Among those invited were Azad, Sayeed and Omar Abdullah, the president of the National Conference, which has emerged as the single largest party after the election.
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