HEADLINES POLL ARCHIVES FEEDBACK SEARCH REDIFF NEWSLINKS US EDITION NEWS DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ARCHIVES
Basharat Peer in Srinagar
The Congress on Tuesday intensified its efforts to cobble together a simple majority in the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly.
This followed its failed talks with the Peoples Democratic Party for the formation of a coalition government in the state.
On Monday, the Congress's chief ministerial candidate, Ghulam Nabi Azad, was elected the leader of the party's legislature group.
On Tuesday, news came that three of the four legislators from Ladakh had agreed to support the Congress bid to form a government in Srinagar.
Nisar Ali, an independent from Kargil, went public with his support for the Congress. "I am not joining the Congress, but we have decided to support the party," he said.
Azad has been personally in touch with several independents after his arrival from Delhi on Monday.
But his real coup was the winning over of the Ladakh Union Territory Front MLAs.
Officially, however, the LUTF still talks of remaining neutral.
"Ladakhis from all shades of political opinion decided to float the LUTF to push for our demand of Union territory status for Ladakh. The unopposed elections were a sort of referendum in favour of that demand," Nawang Rigzin Jora, the LUTF man elected from Leh -- the heart of Ladakh's political and economic activity -- told rediff.com.
He believes that Ladakh does not have anything in common with Kashmir and Jammu regions except "Maharaja Hari Singh's rule."
"Let them give autonomy to Kashmir, we have no problem with that...we want Union territory status for Ladakh," Jora said.
He, however, did not have any straight answers to the question of why the Muslim-majority Kargil does not support the Union territory demand.
"Kargil people will come around to our point of view very soon," Jora said.
Jora and his LUTF may swear by neutrality, but he has a fair idea which way the winds are blowing in J&K -- winds of power that is.
Just as he was talking to this correspondent, Azad arrived for a meeting with a group of independent candidates. Seconds later, Jora was garlanding Azad and was seen rising on his toes to drape a shawl around the Congress leader's shoulders.
No wonder then that the Congress is confident of LUTF support.
"We are quite certain that Ladakh Union Territory Front legislators are joining us," said Peerzada Mohammed Syed, Congress state unit vice-president.
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
