Baig ‘invites’ Vajpayee, coalition ire

Baig, the state Finance, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said in his Republic Day address that Vajpayee should contest LS elections from the state.

The Congress, on other hand, feels Baig should have invited chief Sonia Gandhi and not Vajpayee to contest from Kashmir. ‘‘This Minister is the Finance Minister because of Congress support to his party in running the coalition government. His comments are against the spirit of the coordination committee. Ideally, he should have invited Soniaji to fight elections from here, as she is trying to group together secular parties to fight the BJP’s communal politics,’’ added Vakil.

Apart from intra-coalition sparring, NC president Omar Abdullah said he believes the comment has legal as well as political connotations as people from outside J-K cannot contest elections here. ‘‘The PDP is trying to prove to the world that there’s no problem in the state, by inviting PM to fight elections. And as far as my understanding goes, no non-state subject can contest polls from here,’’ he said.

Shrugging off the furore, Baig said his comment reflects his opinion and is not an invitation to Vajpayee. ‘‘I meant that there’s a huge amount of goodwill among the people for PM Vajpayee and since the Kashmiri people can’t give him a Nobel Prize for peace process he has initiated between India and Pakistan, as a mark of gratitude they can offer him to contest polls. It was just an opinion and not invitation,’’ Baig said.

JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik said the offer is just a ruse to please the Delhi leadership and create an impression that ‘‘Kashmiris are attached to Delhi’’.

The comment has strained the already frayed ties between the PDP-Congress after a spat on January 25. At the meeting chaired by CM M.M. Sayeed, Congress’ Deputy CM Mangat Ram Sharma and Health Minister Lal Singh walked out after Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir opposed Congress proposal to appoint K.B. Pillai as chairman of Public Service Commission.