Independents can spoil Mufti's party

SRINAGAR: A dozen-odd Independents, who had earlier pledged to support Congress-People''s Democratic Party (PDP) coalition maintained a stiff upper lip on Saturday as Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was sworn in as the sixth chief minister of the state.
The dozen Independents are divided in two groups, of which one is seven-member strong and includes two CPM legislators.
The other group comprises five Independents from Jammu region, including Manohar Lal Sharma (Billawar), Abdul Majid Wani (Doda), Aijaz (Gool-Arnas), Moulvi Rashid (Banihal) and Puran Singh (Darhal).
Behind-the-scenes negotiations continued all through Friday as all Independents insisted on being given ministries as had been promised to them by the Congress 20 days ago.
However, senior Congress leader Ambika Soni ruled this out saying they could be inducted into the ministry only on a rotational basis and not in one go.
At one time, the Congress leaders tried to convince M Y Tarigami, who leads a pack of seven, that one of them could be sworn in along with Mufti. She also reportedly told the same thing to the other five that one of them could be sworn in on Saturday.
The Independents rejected this offer outright and insisted that they all wanted to be told then and there what the Congress-PDP coalition had on its platter for them.
Since the elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state are due in the near future, the Congress-PDP coalition can ill-afford to antagonise the Independents as each vote is crucial if it wants to ensure the victory of three candidates.
One seat anyway would be bagged by Farooq Abdullah on the strength of the 28 National Conference legislators.
To bring further pressure on Mufti and state Congress chief Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Independents are now insisting that they be given one Rajya Sabha seat. Not only this, they have also sought one-third share in the nomination of MLCs whose names have to be proposed by the government.
The gameplan of the PDP-Congress coalition managers was to draw a wedge among the Independents, offer ministries to some of them and then keep the carrot of office dangling before them for some more time.
In fact, senior Congress members admitted in private that they want to form the complete ministry only after two crucial tests: the Rajya Sabha elections and the vote of confidence in the state Assembly.
The Independents have now decided to stick it together and not concede any ground to the coalition leaders. To keep the negotiations going, the Independents maintained on Saturday publicly that they would support the coalition government from outside.
In the behind-the-door lobbying, they kept on demanding ministries and even indulged in a bit of sabre-rattling (threatening not to support the government on the floor of the House).
Asked for his comments, one Independent, requesting anonymity, said tongue firmly in cheek "The Congress has surrendered the CMs post and will wait for three years to have its CM. It should ask its MLAs to wait for three years to become ministers and make us (Independents) ministers now. That way we would not claim any ministerships in 2005 when a Congress CM takes charge".
Asked whether they were ready to play the dirty dozen if not given ministries in the near future, one of them said: "You bet."
Usman Majid, an Independent not affiliated to any group, said: "The mathematics of the House is such that I am the 44th member for either side. The Congress (20), PDP (16), Panthers Party (4) and three members from Ladakh add up to 43."
All others put together comprise 43 since the NC has 28, the two groups of Independents 12 and the BJP, BSP and the Jammu State Morcha have one member each. The way the numbers game was poised now, it would not be easy for the PDP-Congress combine to deny the Independents their due, he pointed out, adding he definitely would not go along with the government in a crisis situation.