Azad Suspected Of Striking Deal With Nc For Rajya Sabha Seat

They cite the fact that Azad's staunch supporter Mian Bashir recently crossed from the Congress to the National Conference and the fact that the NC has not put up a candidate against his other close associate, Iftekhar Ansari, as pointers to Azad's covert association with the National Conference.

Congress sources claim that Rajesh Pilot had opposed nominating either Ansari or Bashir's son at the meeting of the Congress election committee which finalised the party's list of candidates for J&K. Pilot is said to have told the meeting that he feared that both were about to leave the Congress.

According to these sources, Azad countered Pilot, saying both were senior members of the party and there was no question of their leaving it. Congress President PV Narasimha Rao agreed with this. Ansari was given the Congress ticket for Pattan and Bashir's son, Altaf, the ticket for Kangan.

When asked to confirm this version of what happened at the meeting, Madhavsinh Solanki, the AICC general secretary in charge of J&K, yesterday refused to disclose what transpired there but said that both Bashir and Ansari were senior leaders of the party and so were bound to get the nominations. Azad's calculation could be that National Conference President Farooq Abdullah could offer his party's extra votes for Azad's election if the Congress brings in less seats in the new J&K assembly than would be required to win a Rajya Sabha seat by itself.

The Congress is not expected to fare well, at least in the valley, especially after the desertion by Bashir, who commands the loyalty of the state's large Gujjar and Bakherwal communities, and indications from Ansari, the state's ranking Shia leader, that he is Abdullah's man.

Azad has been out of Parliament since he lost the Lok Sabha elections. Rao had earlier this year chosen to renominate SB Chavan and NKP Salve for the two Rajya Sabha seats the Congress could win from Maharashtra. Azad had been the third Congress member retiring along with Chavan and Salve after a six-year term in the Rajya Sabha.