Cong washes hands off Beigh affair

PDP leader removed as legislature party chief, likely to lose Cabinet berth as well.

Embarrassed by infighting in the People's Democratic Party and angry at attempts to draw it into an internal power struggle, the Congress today made no attempt to defend Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussein Beigh and said the matter was the internal affair of the PDP.

Beigh was yesterday removed as leader of the PDP legislature party, a move that would lead to his removal from the Cabinet as well.

"It is an internal matter of the PDP. We do not interfere in it. It does not affect the stability of the coalition government," Union Minister Ambika Soni told agencies from Pune.

Soni, incharge of the party units in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, said PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had written to the chief minister informing him that Beigh was no longer the leader of the legislature party. The Congress said it would work with anyone the PDP nominated as the deputy chief minister.

Yesterday, the PDP first sought shifting of Beigh from finance and law portfolios, but Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad refused. Hours after, Azad re-allocated finance, planning, law and parliamentary affairs portfolios to Beigh. At this, the PDP called a meeting of its legislature party at former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's residence and elected Abdul Aziz Zargar as the new chairman. The PDP also demanded Beigh's ouster from the Cabinet.

The meeting decided that it would prefer to forego the deputy chief ministership than have Beigh on the post.

Late in the evening, Mufti's emissary delivered the PDP's letter at the chief minister's residence.

Zargar, a former agriculture minister, had resigned over an allegation that the Akshardham attack was planned at his residence.

There are two views about the entire incident. One is that this was PDP leadership's, especially Mehbooba Mufti's way of cutting Beigh to size following his repeated praise of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The other view is that these are the first signs of a souring relationship between the PDP and Congress.

Azad, who was in Leh in today, has so far not acted on the PDP's demand.