PDP ministers walk out of Cabinet meet

Merely a fortnight after Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad warned his ministerial colleagues from the Congress against making statements on the coalition, differences between Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) came to the fore once again during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The PDP ministers walked out of the Cabinet meeting chaired by Azad late this evening.

The trouble, sources said, erupted when some PDP ministers raked up the issue of recent utterances by a Cabinet colleague from the Congress camp against former CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Azad’s efforts to pacify the agitating PDP ministers apprising them of the instructions already issued by him to his party colleagues in the Cabinet did not yield any positive result. Amidst heated exchanges, the PDP ministers walked out of the meeting, leaving the CM and other Congress ministers in a tight spot.

The PDP had earlier also objected to the minister’s utterances and soon thereafter, Azad had publicly warned his party’s Cabinet colleagues against making statements about the ruling coalition. Sources said that Azad himself along with Health and Medical Education Minister personally persuaded the angry PDP ministers to return to the meeting which, however, could be resumed around 8.45 pm and continued till 10.30 pm.