Srinagar, Nov 5 (SocialNews.XYZ) Even though they claim to be the loyalists of the ruling National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir, the group of dissident MLAs on Thursday decided to meet again ahead of their meeting with NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah on Friday.
The dissidents are meeting at the residence of Mubarak Gul, the dissident NC MLA, who deferred his press conference on Wednesday, but asserted that he was firm in his resolve.
What started as a personal disgruntlement over non-inclusion in the reshuffled cabinet by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is now being projected as a "larger and nobler cause to save the over 80-year-old political party".
The disgruntled MLAs like Mubarak Gul, Abdul Majeed Larmi, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, Pirzada Farooq Ahmad Shah and others raised voices against CM Omar Abdullah for having overlooked their seniority/importance in the party while choosing his new council of ministers.
The dissidents, who will be meeting for the fourth time, are now claiming to stand together to save the ‘NC and make the government more responsive to the demands of the people’.
The list of demands likely to be raised before the party president, Dr Farooq Abdullah, whom they claim to be meeting on Friday, includes some apparently ‘non-negotiable for Omar Abdullah’, even though Dr Abdullah is expected to use his stature, influence and the unchallenged standing in the party to bring the dissidents to agreeable terms.
On their part, the dissidents want Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary removed from the cabinet or at least, divested of the R&B portfolio. Dissidents are lodging charges of corruption against Choudhary.
They want Nasir Aslam Wani, advisor to the chief minister, removed, and the influence of another NC MP, Shammi Oberoi, over the party affairs to be stopped. Both Nasir and Shammi are close friends of Omar Abdullah, and their loyalty to the Abdullah family is believed to be above board.
“Conceding to this demand would be more difficult for Omar Abdullah than asking him to step down as the chief minister,” sources close to Omar have said.
The third demand of the dissidents is to drop the ministers from the council of ministers, who have served for two years and to bring in new faces in consultation with the MLAs.
There are other demands as well, but conceding to the first three would, for the party high command, be like surrendering before the dissidents, the sources said.
Both Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have so far not given a reaction about the apparent dissent in the party. The resignation of MP, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, from both the NC and the Lok Sabha was called the success of ‘Operation Lotus’ by the NC spokespersons, Salman Sagar and Sajad Shaheen, at a press conference on Wednesday.
They said the BJP always wanted to break the NC, and they succeeded to the extent of making Ruhullah resign. “BJP has been working on Operation Lotus throughout the country, and Ruhullah’s resignation is part of this operation,” Salman Sagar told reporters.
The NC spokespersons referred to a remark made on Tuesday at Jammu by BJP national vice president Ram Madhav. He told reporters that Ruhullah was holding a rally with the blessings of ‘our people’. Madhav, however, made it categorically clear that the BJP had nothing to do with the latest developments within NC.
The dissidents are saying they are a group of 20 MLAs, but only 12 faces have come out in the open. In the 90-member Legislative Assembly, NC has 41 MLAs, and it is supported by six Congress legislators, one CPI(M) and five Independents.
The dissidents cannot claim to form a breakaway group unless they are 2/3rd of the NC strength. This means the dissent will have to rotate within the party, and the outcome of the meeting between the dissidents and the party high command will depend upon how much the Abdullahs are ready to concede to the dissidents. Unless some earthshaking development takes place, the dissent in NC will remain a storm in a teacup and not spill over.
Source: IANS
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