Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, June 20: Gearing up for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Pradesh Congress today convened a high level crucial meeting at the residence of senior party leader and former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at Srinagar on Friday evening.
During the marathon meeting, Ghulam Nabi Azad and PCC president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz discussed party strategy vis-à-vis ground situation and probable Congress candidates for the Assembly elections, sources informed the Excelsior.
The meeting was also attended by some Congress Ministers, who gave their view point on various issues as well as the probable candidates for Assembly polls and their winning prospects, sources added.
The marathon meeting started at 6 p m and continued for around five hours during which a detailed discussion was held on issues ranging from prospects of a pre-poll alliance and impact of Modi wave, which had swept the Congress party in Jammu as well as Ladakh regions resulting into victory of BJP candidates on all three Lok Sabha seats in the two regions.
Both Azad and Soz sought suggestions from the participating minister on pros and cons of a pre-poll alliance with National Conference but the idea was vociferously opposed by all with solid reasons, particularly the humiliating defeat of alliance candidates in recent Parliament elections, sources said.
As the part of future course of action and strategy to fully prepare the party for forthcoming Assembly polls, sources said that Azad and Soz exhorted the Congress ministers to effectively raise the public issue like shortage of ration due to gaps in public distribution system, non-implementation of Food Security Act in J&K, administrative lapses etc.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Minister for PHE Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Health and Medical Education Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister for Haj and Aquaf Peerzada Mohd Sayeed, Minister for Housing and Culture Raman Bhalla, Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir and others.
Minister for R&B Abdul Majid Wani, MoS Revenue Aijaz Ahmad Khan and MoS Cooperative Dr Manohar Lal could not attend the meeting as they were not in the summer capital.
Sources said that following meeting with ministers and senior leaders, both Azad and Soz held one to one discussion for some time during which the issue of nomination of MLC candidate also figured in the wake of completion of the tenure of Subash Gupta in Upper House.
Today’s meeting was earlier scheduled to be held on Saturday but the same was preponed due to some engagement of Ghulam Nabi Azad at New Delhi.
According to the sources, both Azad and Soz will together fly to Delhi tomorrow and meet Sonia Gandhi for apprising her about the party strategy for the Assembly elections in State.
Pertinent to mention here that Sonia is also taking feed back from different State units of the Congress for effecting necessary changes in the organizational set up in the wake of party debacle in Parliament polls.
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