Congress for early J&K elections, to hold party meet in Srinagar

The Congress on Monday said it wanted early elections in Jammu and Kashmir as it ruled out possibility of supporting the PDP for forming an alternate government in the state.

It also dismissed any significance of a reported meeting soon of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

General Secretary in-charge of the state Ambika Soni told reporters after a meeting of the party's policy planning group on Kashmir that the party will prepare for fresh elections on the basis of its programmes, while a meeting of 100 senior party leaders from the state's three regions will be held in Srinagar on Tuesday to chalk out the future roadmap.

On reports that Mehbooba Mufti may meet Sonia Gandhi, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "Meeting somebody is not to be read into all the other kinds of conclusions you are drawing. I don't think we should jump to conclusions."

The policy planning group, in its second meeting since imposition of Governor's Rule, discussed the state's political situation and the way the alliance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "frittered away" its mandate in the state where Governor's Rule was imposed last month after BJP pulled out of the Mehbooba Mufti-led government.

The meeting, held at the residence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was attended by former Union Ministers P. Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad, state Congress chief G.A. Mir and former MP Tareeq Hameed Karra.

Sources said it was decided in the meeting decided that the group will complete its pending visit to Ladakh at the earliest and will visit Kargil and Leh.

Soni later told the media that fresh elections should be held as early as possible.

"We (Congress) want early election in state. We have demanded that there should be an election as early as possible. The roadmap of the election will be discussed tomorrow (Tuesday). We need to strengthen our party first," she said, adding Governor's Rule should not exceed a period of more than five to six months.

Talking to IANS, Soni said that party leaders, during a meeting with state Governor N. N. Vohra, had demanded the assembly be dissolved.

".... The question of government formation has not been discussed by the party. The question does not arise."

Singhvi also reiterated that elections should be held soon and attacked the BJP for alleging that the Congress was trying to form a government in the state.

--IANS

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