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Onkar Singh in Srinagar
Senior Congress leader Professor Saifuddin Soz on Tuesday denied reports that he was mediating between the Congress and the People's Democratic Party for the formation of a new government in Jammu and Kashmir.
"I got a few phone calls from a television outfit this morning and the reporter asked me if I was playing the role of a mediator. I told him I am not doing anything of that sort and still the television channel has gone ahead and said that I am meeting Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in order to bring about some kind of a patch up between the Congress and the PDP," Soz told rediff.com.
Meanwhile, the People's Democratic Forum -- a group of six independents and two Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislators -- held a closed-door meeting in Srinagar on Tuesday afternoon.
"If the others are trying to swell their ranks, why should we not do the same and increase our bargaining power," Ghulam Mohiudddin Sofi, the PDF convenor told rediff.com.
He said the Congress legislature party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had called on him on Monday evening to seek the forum's support.
"Yes, we had a meeting with him for over an hour and we discussed the formation of the new government in Srinagar. He gave me a letter seeking our support," Sofi said.
The Congress has intensified its efforts to cobble together a simple majority in the state assembly after its failed talks with the Peoples Democratic Party for the formation of a coalition government.
The PDP is likely to clear its stand on government formation at a press conference later in the day.
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