SRINAGAR, JULY 7: The numbers in the House stacked against him, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned ahead of a floor test in the Assembly today. With elections in the state due after three months, J&K looks set for a brief spell of Governor’s rule.

Governor N N Vohra accepted Azad’s resignation but requested him to continue in office till “alternate arrangements are made”. Immediately after Azad put in his papers, Vohra held meetings with political parties. The opposition National Conference, which is the single largest party in the Assembly, did not stake a claim to form the government, making Governor’s rule a likely option.

After partner PDP pulled out from the ruling coalition over the Amarnath land transfer issue, Azad still had the support of 40 legislators in a House of 87. Though he needed the support of just four more MLAs, he chose not to muster a majority — the Amarnath land transfer row and and the approaching polls have changed the very dynamics of politics across the state.

The NC, which always maintained close relations with Azad, went all out against the government because it had its own compulsions. An NC vote for Azad government at this juncture would have been political suicide for the party which is desperate to return to power. The party is trying to regain the Kashmir-centric character and political space that it lost to rival PDP during the 2002 polls.

The Amarnath land transfer issue has communally polarised the Jammu province — the Hindu-dominated Jammu-Kathua-Udhampur belt is at loggerheads with the Muslim-majority hill districts of Rajouri, Poonch and Doda. The NC has already repositioned itself to fit in this new void, given that the PDP is publicly considered “an accomplice” to the initial government decision to transfer forest land to the Amarnath shrine board.

The PDP, on the other hand, could not return to the coalition owing to the bitter circumstances which led to the parting of ways. Keeping the lines of engagement open with the Congress is essential for the survival of the PDP in the state because the Congress is the only party in J&K with which it has a chance to forge an alliance. This is why the PDP is trying to draw a distinction between the Congress high command and its J&K chapter.

Other than the Congress, the Panthers party with four MLAs is the only other major party from Jammu. They too couldn’t extend support to Azad because of their own unique political compulsions. While the land transfer order became a reason for the PDP to withdraw from the coalition, Azad’s revocation of the order has tied the hands of his supporters, especially from the Hindu-dominated Jammu city and Kathua belt.

Then Azad’s own anti-defection law ruled out any possibility of horse trading. Azad too, sources said, was not keen to poach legislators, that too when his term is ending in three months.

Azad spoke for 130 minutes today, detailing his government’s achievements and hitting out at political opponents both inside and outside the House. And once he ended his address, he asked Speaker Tara Chand to withdraw the confidence motion moved by him at the beginning of his speech.

“I do not wish to put my friends in trouble, their heart is somewhere else and their party whip is somewhere else,” Azad told the House. “I am satisfied with my work. I don’t care whether the government survives or falls. I have shown the way.”

Azad claimed several MLAs from other parties were with him. “Their conscience will say something while their party whip is something else”. He said that he didn’t believe in the politics of “horse trading” and he would never indulge in any “undemocratic” practice.

He hit out at those playing politics in the name of religion. “I keep religion away from politics. Some brokers of such politics are active both in Jammu and Srinagar. We saw (them) first on the streets of Srinagar and now in Jammu. Brokers of religion in Jammu are bent upon to destroy this state,” he said. Without naming the PDP, he said “people who sail in two boats are the most dangerous” and warned people to be on guard.