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The Jammu and Kashmir unit chief of the Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad, on Tuesday admitted that his party made a compromise on the issue of chief ministership while joining hands with the People's Democratic Party to form a coalition government in the state.
He, however, added that the compromise was for the common good of the Kashmiris and to provide the state with a strong and stable government.
"We had several options to form a Congress-led government in Jammu and Kashmir, but we thought keeping two major parties [the PDP and the National Conference] out of the government would be unfair," he said.
He said the party also thought it unfeasible to simultaneously fight the National Conference and the PDP at the state level and the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level. "And then we also have to contend with Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism," he added.
Asked about the PDP's stand on militancy in Kashmir, the Congress leader said: "We need to evolve a new approach to tackle this problem. While an iron-hand treatment must be given to foreign militants, we have to deal differently with misguided locals."
On the formation of a new ministry, Azad said it was for the new chief minister to take the decision on the composition of his team. "What will be our party's representation in the coalition team is a decision that will taken in consultation with our party leaders and legislators," he said.
Azad said the coalition would request the Union government to hold sincere and wide-ranging consultations with legislators and other segments of the Kashmiri people hailing from all three regions of the state in order to evolve a broad-based consensus on restoration of peace and normalcy in the state.
Maintaining that the Congress would not compromise on its pre-poll promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, Azad said the party has put all these points in the Common Minimum Programme of the coalition.
Meanwhile, National Conference president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday called on Jammu and Kashmir chief minister-designate Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at his Nowgam residence in Srinagar.
"I told him (Sayeed) that the National Conference would act as a responsible opposition and will oppose the government wherever necessary," Omar told reporters after the meeting.
PTI
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