M A I N   N E W S

J-K ex-Dy CM Mangat Ram dumps Cong, joins PDP
Majid Jahangir & Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service

Srinagar/Jammu, October 26
A day after the EC announced elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress veteran and former deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma today joined the People’s Democratic Party.

The day also saw Public Health Engineering Minister Sham Lal Sharma putting up a show of strength in Jammu. His supporters gave him a rousing reception as he arrived at the Jammu airport. The PHE Minister had resigned a few days ago over alleged dilly-dallying by the NC on regularisation of 62,000 casual workers.

Mangat Ram Sharma, a confidant of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, joined the PDP in the presence of party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Jammu.

Sharma had been hobnobbing with the PDP for the past two months.

Sharma was the Deputy Chief Minister in the PDP-led coalition headed by Sayeed from 2002 to 2005. “We were colleagues in the Mir Qasim government and had worked in the previous PDP-Congress government,” Mufti said while welcoming Sharma into the party.

Sharma’s elder son Subash had earlier announced his candidature from the Kathua seat on a PDP ticket.

The PDP will hold a meeting of its highest decision-making body — the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) — this week to nominate candidates for 20 Assembly seats in the state.

“We will hold a PAC meeting soon to finalise candidates for the Assembly segments where PDP candidates have not been named,” said party’s chief spokesperson Naeem Akthar.

The party has not announced its candidates from five seats in Kathua, three each in Srinagar and Jammu districts, two each in Reasi and Kargil, and one each in Baramulla, Bandipora, Leh, Rajouri and Udhampur.

The PDP, buoyed by its performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections, is looking to secure 44 seats in the 87-member Assembly, to form a government on its own.

Indira's aide

• Mangat Ram Sharma had been in talks with the PDP for the past two months after being ‘ignored’ by the Congress leadership
• He was once considered close to former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

PDP panel to meet this week

The Political Affairs Committee of the PDP will meet this week to decide its candidates for 20 Assembly seats in the state. The party has not announced its candidates from five seats in Kathua, three each in Srinagar and Jammu districts, two each in Reasi and Kargil, and one each in Baramulla, Bandipora, Leh, Rajouri and Udhampur.