JAMMU, April 5: The change of guard at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in Delhi has made the former Union Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, also shift his stand over the ruling National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir.Giving an indication to this effect here yesterday, Azad for the first time asked the Congress MLA, Moulvi Iftikar Hussain Ansari, to either quit the NC cabinet or the party in the State. Ansari, a Shia leader of Kashmir and considered to be enjoying the patronage of Azad, is holding the portfolio of Housing and Urban Development in the National Conference cabinet headed by the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.Ansari was elected to the State Legislative Assembly from Pattan in Kashmir Valley as a Congress nominee in 1996. He joined the National Conference ministry despite opposition from among his other party legislators, who decided to sit in Opposition in the House.Significantly, the former Union minister never objected to the presence of Ansari in the NC ministry evenduring his tenure as the AICC general secretary. Instead, he always advocated the idea of strengthening Farooq to keep the country united, as also to fight anti-national and communal forces in the Valley.According to sources within the Congress, it was on this analogy that Azad got himself elected to the Rajya Sabha with the support of the NC despite opposition by most of the party legislators in the State. Otherwise, they pointed out that the party having only seven members in the 87-member Legislative Assembly, did not have the requisite number of MLAs even to field him for the Rajya Sabha elections.Azad also reciprocated to the NC gesture by getting his party candidate, Aga Syed Mehdi, withdraw from the contest against Farooq's son, Omer Farooq, in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency during the recent parliamentary elections held in the State. The party sources said though Mehdi was asked to withdraw from the contest by the then AICC president Sitaram Kesri, the main architect of this unilateral goodwillgesture to Farooq was none else than Azad.Now, the change in Azad's stand has not surprised any in the State, as political observers here feel that it was inevitable in view of the developments having taken place within and outside the party during the past few weeks. They attributed it to the change of guard at the AICC headquarters, as also the election of former union minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, for the first time from Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency.Besides, the NC decision to lend issue based support to the Bharatiya Janata Party Government at the Centre also appears to have provoked the former Union minister come out openly against the ruling party in the State."Time has come when Ansari should decide either to resign from Government or join the National Conference," Azad said, adding the role of an effective Opposition in the State has become all the more important in view of the understanding between the NC and the BJP at the Centre.
