The Congress rank and file in Jammu and Kashmir is less than happy over the way its alliance with the National Conference is evolving and strongly feels about calling it a day “in the interest of the party”. This was somewh-at evident during a one-day delegate session of the party held here on Saturday.
Several party leaders from within the state also expressed the view that the Congress high-command should either break off or look for alternatives “because our coalition with the NC is only proving detrimental to our own image in public.” A few voices were raised also against the “poor” performance of the Congress ministers in the coalition government, sources in the party said.
However, senior Congress leader and Union minister for health Ghulam Nabi Azad and PCC chief Prof. Saifuddin Soz at a joint press conference termed the reports of the participants’ resiliently expressing discontent over the Congress-NC coalition functioning as “speculation”.
Mr Azad said, “There was no such thing there. Minor differences voiced during the delegate session have been resolved amicably.” But the sources said that the delegate session held at Sher-i-Kashmir Internati-onal Convention Centre here witnessed noisy scen-es and occasional disruption as many of the over 450 participants made no bones about their displeasure over the party’s alliance with the NC.