Krishna Rao Meets Gowda

A PMO officer called it a courtesy call by Krishna Rao, who was visiting Delhi. He ruled out any possibility of the governmnet changing the J&K Governor.

The Chief Minister himself is pre-occupied with Rajya Sabha elections, in which the State has to send four MPs to the Upper House.

According to United Front sources, the Chief Minister is willing to support Congress former minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The Congress cannot send any nominee to the Rajya Sabha without the support of the National Conference.

Abdullah has successfully resisted pressure from Prime Minister Deve Gowda and CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet to accomodate two non-MP Union cabinet ministers, minister for planning Y K Alagh and labour minister B S Ramoowalia, against the three Rajya Sabha nominations that his party can safely make.

Abdullah had even complained to Gowda against this and expressed his inability to oblige him with two seats. Finally, the two seem to have settled for one.

Ramoowalia is likely to be sent to Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, with the support of the new Chief Minister Shanker Sinh Vaghelas Maha Gujarat Party.

Abdullah has decided on sending Saifuddin Soz to Rajya Sabha. Besides, he is also likely to nominate Karan Singh as his partys second nominee. The third nominee would be Alagh.

The party would still be left with a large number of surplus votes, which are, however, not enough to secure victory for a fourth National Conference candidate.

Ghulam Nabi Azads chances of entering the Rajya Sabha from J&K is being fiercely opposed by the state unit of the Congress party.

The state Congress members have urged the Congress Working Committee members not to allow Azad enter RS from their state against their wishes.

Azad is considered close to the present Congress president Sitaram Kesri and against former Congress president and former prime minsiter P V Narasimha Rao, who had refused a RS ticket to Azad.

Azads colleague in the Rao government, Rajesh Pilot, is said to be the main force behind opposing Azads bid to have a foothold in the state.