Congress party leader Ambika Soni said a meeting of 100 prominent political leaders from Jammu & Kashmir has been called tomorrow to decide on the party’s future course of action.
“We have called 100 prominent people (of the party) from all five regions of the state, including MLAs, former MLAs, MLCs and others. We will deliberate on our future strategy (for the state) tomorrow,” Soni said.
Soni did not deny or affirm the possibility of the party deciding to support People’s Democratic Party or PDP to form a coalition government after tomorrow’s meeting.
PDP has 28 seats in the 87-member assembly, while the Congress Party has 12 and National Conference has 15.
Soni said the current stand of the party remains the same as was announced in the immediate aftermath of the BJP pulling out of the BJP-PDP alliance some days ago.
The party, she pointed out, had urged that the legislative assembly be dissolved and fresh elections held.
“Anyway, you can’t have president’s rule in perpetuity. They have to hold fresh elections in five months,” he said.
Senior congress leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad had prevailed upon the leadership to not explore any tie-up with PDP, which is the primary rival of National Conference — the Congress’ traditional ally in the state.
However, it is believed that the party now wants to listen to the feedback of its leaders and workers, and decide whether an immediate election would be in its interest, or whether it should let the current assembly run its course for another 1.5 years.