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NC panel to finalise stand on BJP govt: Abdullah

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has said that the party's working committee will meet soon to discuss the political developments at the Centre.

Addressing the media in Jammu yesterday, Dr Abdullah said, "My party is keenly watching the developments... The crisis has to be overcome as the country cannot afford any political turmoil."

Sources said that the chief minister has been under tremendous pressure from party hardliners to end its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. They allege that the BJP has done little to help the troubled state financially. The state presently is facing the worst-ever financial crisis and many employees in the valley have not been paid their salaries.

Asked if the NC would abstain from voting if there was a trust vote against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Dr Abdullah said, "The working committee will take care of everything."

Arriving later in the day in New Delhi, Dr Abdullah met Prime Minister Vajpayee, apparently to express his party's support to the BJP-led government.

The NC, which has three members in the Lok Sabha, did not openly support the government in the Lok Sabha till now. Its members have abstained from voting on crucial issues.

Dr Abdullah had recently stated that the Vajpayee government would survive even if the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham withdrwaws its support.

Meanwhile, in view of the financial crisis in the state, Dr Abdullah asked all his ministerial colleagues to surrender their departmental vehicles.

He told the assembly that the vehicles of all officers, except departmental heads, would be withdrawn immediately.

''We had hoped the present BJP government, like the earlier ones headed by H D Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral, would help the state out of the present financial crisis. But this has not happened."

Additional reportage: UNI

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