Umaisar Gul Ganaie
Anantnag, Oct 13: Senior Congress leader and MLA Dooru, Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Monday said that before finalising seats for the Rajya Sabha, the ruling National Conference should have consulted like-minded political groups in Jammu and Kashmir including the PDP to develop a consensus on the proper division of seats in the Upper House of Parliament.
Mir said that since the formation of the coalition government, Congress had been sidelined and its views were not considered by the ruling partner.
“When the coalition came into existence and the government was formed, the coordination and unity that should have been there among the partners were missing. The oath-taking ceremony was held without prior discussions between the coalition partners. Because of this, even then, Congress’s issues were not included in the power-sharing agreement,” Mir said.
He added that during the year that followed, many contentious issues for which the coalition was formed were ignored. “We had gone before the people, sought their votes, and received a strong mandate. Matters of public interest should have been deliberated upon from time to time, but that never happened,” Mir said.
He said that Congress had sought one safe seat for the Rajya Sabha, and the issue was taken up with the National Conference at the highest level. “Their top leadership had agreed in principle that one safe seat would be given to Congress. We asked them to work out the details with us, but there was no response from their side. Instead, we were told that Congress could field a candidate for the fourth seat,” Mir said.
“However, there was no concrete vote bank for the fourth seat. The roles that leaders like Chief Minister or Dr Farooq Abdullah could have played in securing that seat were not something Congress could ensure alone. So, we repeatedly asked them to nominate Congress for any one of the first three seats if they had assured us a safe one. They did not agree,” he said.
Mir added that after detailed discussions, Congress decided not to field any candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections. “No one can deny that the National Conference received a big mandate, and the government is with them. It was their responsibility to take a call on this matter,” he said.
He further said that the National Conference should have brought the PDP and Independents—those not likely to support the BJP—on board to create a combined vote bank of 60 seats. “With such coordination, the division of seats could have happened smoothly, and there would have been no issue over which party got which seat. Like-minded partners should have been called together and taken into confidence. That initiative should have come from the National Conference, but it did not,” Mir said. (KNO)
