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Dissident NC MLAs to Meet Farooq Abdullah TodayKashmir
Dissident National Conference legislators are likely to meet party president Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar on Friday to air their grievances after the recent cabinet reshuffle left several senior leaders out of the ministry.
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Dissident legislators of the ruling National Conference (NC) in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to meet party president Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar on Friday to raise their grievances following the recent cabinet reshuffle, party sources said.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is also expected to attend the meeting, as the party leadership tries to pacify legislators who are unhappy at being left out of the council of ministers.
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The discontent follows the cabinet expansion on October 27, in which four new ministers were inducted, taking the council of ministers to its maximum permissible statutory limit of nine. The expansion left several senior leaders out of the ministry, including six-time MLA Mubarak Gul.
Following the expansion, scores of party workers staged protests over the exclusion of Mubarak Gul, the MLA from Eidgah. Some of the dissatisfied legislators had earlier met at one place, but they did not reveal what was discussed at that meeting.
Party sources said the disgruntled legislators have raised a number of organisational and administrative concerns with the top leadership and have sought a formal audience to press their case. The meeting on Friday is expected to give them an opportunity to place their demands directly before the party president and the chief minister.
The resentment is not limited to one constituency. Several senior leaders are said to be unhappy with the way the cabinet expansion was carried out, and the leadership is keen to prevent the discontent from spilling into the open. The party is aware that any public display of division could weaken its position at a time when it is trying to consolidate its hold on the government.
The ruling National Conference has officially played down reports of any internal rebellion or external threat to the government. The party has described the meeting of MLAs as a routine pre-Darbar move social gathering over lunch, and has sought to project an image of unity within its ranks.
The Darbar move is the traditional biannual shifting of the seat of government between Srinagar and Jammu, and the meeting has been scheduled just ahead of it. Party insiders say the leadership wants to settle the matter before the move so that the government can function smoothly in the winter capital.
It remains to be seen whether Friday’s meeting will settle the grievances of the dissident legislators or whether the discontent within the party will continue in the coming days. The outcome of the meeting will be watched closely by political observers in the Union Territory.
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