Independents not willing to concede any ground to Govt

SRINAGAR: A dozen-odd Independents, who had earlier pledged support to the Congress-People''s Democratic Party (PDP) coalition, maintained a stiff upper lip on Saturday as PDP president Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was sworn in as the sixth chief minister.
The 12 Independents are divided into two. The seven-member strong group includes two CPM legislators. The other five Independents from Jammu are 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 can be inducted into the ministry only on a rotational basis and not in one go.
At one time, Congress leaders tried to convince M Y Tarigami, who leads the pack of seven, that one of them could be sworn in along with the Mufti. They also reportedly told 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 know immediately what the Congress-PDP coalition had for them.
The Independents have now decided to stick together and not concede any ground to the coalition leaders. To keep the negotiations going, the Independents maintained publicly on Saturday that they would support the coalition government "from outside".
In the behind-the-door lobbying, they kept demanding ministries and even indulged in a bit of sabre-rattling (threatening not to support the government on the floor of the House). Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state are due in the near future and 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.