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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Several hours before Congress president Sonia Gandhi told a press conference at her residence in New Delhi on Saturday that the new government in Jammu and Kashmir would be led by People's Democratic Party's Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, it had become apparent that Ghulam Nabi Azad -- the party's own chief ministerial aspirant -- had been dumped.
Indications of the party high command dumping Azad came on Friday when he was not asked to be present at the Mufti's meeting with senior Congress leaders Dr Manmohan Singh and Arjun Singh.
Party insiders says it was at this meeting that the decision to let the Mufti take the chief minister's post in Jammu and Kashmir was taken.
"Arjun Singh and M L Fotedar played dirty with Azad," a Congress leader told rediff.com. He felt that after having sent a reluctant Azad to Jammu and Kashmir, the party should have supported his claim to the top post.
"First they had him elected as the state party head and then dumped him...the party top brass has let him down badly," he said.
Azad met a group of reporters at his South Avenue residence in the evening, just hours before the press conference at Sonia's residence, but refused to answer any question on Jammu and Kashmir.
"You would know the decision in a couple of hours," was his stock reply whenever he was asked if he was still in the race for the chief minister's post in Jammu and Kashmir.
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