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The makeup of coalition
The two largest opposition parties, the Congress and PDP, had been expected to muster enough support to form a coalition government by the constitutional deadline on Thursday. But both parties want their leaders to take the CM's seat, the most powerful post in an Indian state. Congress party chief, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said he would ask the state Governor to extend the deadline.
The Opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir were still wrangling Wednesday over who should head the government in the troubled Himalayan state.
After a month of staggered voting in Jammu and Kashmir state, no party won a majority of the 87-seat legislature when the results were announced last Thursday.
The two largest opposition parties, the Congress and People's Democratic Party, had been expected to muster enough support to form a coalition government by the constitutional deadline on Thursday. But both parties want their leaders to take the chief minister's seat, the most powerful post in an Indian state.
Congress party president, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said he would ask the state Governor to extend the deadline and take control of the state legislature when it is formally dissolved on Thursday. Azad is the Congress party choice for the post of chief minister.
Azad is not from the Kashmir Valley. People's Democratic Party leaders say the state's Muslim majority wants someone from the Kashmiri heartland.
Meanwhile, the ruling National Conference, which has dominated Kashmir politics for more than 50 years, declared it was still in the running to form a government since it had won the most seats, 28, although the election results were seen as a rejection of the party.
If the political parties fail to reach an agreement by Thursday, the representative of the federal government, Governor G.C. Saxena, will assume executive powers in Kashmir.
According to law, the Governor can rule the state for six months, keeping the new members of the state legislature hanging until the political groups in the house muster enough numbers to form an alliance.
"We are against Governor's rule because it will amount to disrespect of the people's verdict," said Marxist leader, Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, who is acting as a facilitator between the Congress and the PDP.
The Congress gained 20 seats in the 87-seat state assembly. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, president of the PDP, which won 16 seats, was meeting again with Azad to negotiate a settlement. Earlier, Sayeed blamed the impasse on Congress's inflexibility over fundamental issues.
"The Congress party has created an atmosphere of distrust. They have behaved as if we were foes instead of allies," said Sayeed, who also hopes to become chief minister of the state. His party has called for talks with Muslim rebel leaders to end a separatist insurgency that has killed more than 61,000 people in the Himalayan enclave since 1989.
He said the People's Democratic Party would sit in opposition rather than cooperate with the National Conference if an alliance with Congress is not possible.
