By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, October 27 (IslamOnline) - Congress Party finally conceded last night to the demand of a smaller party to head the new government in Jammu & Kashmir. This brings to an end the suspense that lasted over two weeks in the wake of the handing chief ministership for the first three years to PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who will lead a multi-party coalition government after the two parties reached an agreement on a Common Minimum Program.

Ending a fortnight-long political uncertainty in the wake of a hung verdict in the Assembly elections, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who met the PDP chief, said despite several of her Chief Ministers favoring the party leading the government, she decided that "in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the people of the valley it is right to give Mufti Sahib a chance." Congress Party is already ruling most of Indian states, while the BJP heading the coalition ruling at the centre is left with only one state, Gujarat, which it may lose in the elections early next year.

Congress Legislative Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said a Congress nominee would be heading the government for the remaining three years in the six-year term. Immediately, the party would have a deputy chief minister who hails from Jammu.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the 66-year-old former federal home minister, said the decision to have a coalition under his leadership would fulfill the aspirations of the people and meet the challenges ahead. Mufti Sayeed is an old Congress hand who headed the party in Jammu & Kashmir for about two decades before joining Janata Dal and later forming his own regional outfit, PDP.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the coalition government will not implement POTA as promised by his party and as was the case in other Congress-ruled states.

Sayeed asked the Centre to initiate dialogue with the new legislative assembly as well as with groups who stayed away from the election. "We firmly believe that nothing can be solved through the gun. We must start the process of dialogue to solve the problems and issues confronting the state," he said.

The new government will screen all prisoners in the state and those against whom there were no criminal cases regarding militancy would be freed.

"We will universalize education," Sayeed said congratulating Congress President Sonia Gandhi for rising above partisanship and helping form a government in the state.

The coalition is likely to have the four-member Panthers Party and the seven-member People’s Democratic Forum comprising two MLAs of Communist Party of Inida (Marxist) and independents. While Congress has 20 members, PDP has 16 in the 87-member assembly.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) last night emphasized that its coalition government with Congress Party in Jammu and Kashmir would work for bringing peace with honor to the militancy-torn state and strengthen secular and liberal forces. The coalition government will not be just for sharing power. It will work to strengthen secular and liberal forces, PDP vice president Muzaffar Hussain Beig said in Delhi.

But there is discontent among newly-elected Congress members over conceding the chief ministership to PDP. Some Congress members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) today met in Srinagar informally to convey their unhappiness to the party's high command.

The Common Minimum Programmed (CMP) issued here this evening by the Congress, PDP, People's Democratic Front and Panthers Party, seeks to lay the "foundation for all-round development of all the three regions" of the state.

The CMP asks the Centre to initiate and hold sincerely and seriously wide-ranging consultations with newly elected MLAs and other segments of public opinion to resolve the Kashmir problem.

The CMP promises to" heal physical, psychological and emotional wounds inflicted by militants on the people of the state."

As part of the healing touch, the CMP promises to rehabilitate the hapless victims of militancy, be they survivors of militant killings or children of killed militants.

Making the document public at a press conference, Congress leader Manmohan Singh said the CMP seeks to usher in a new era of peace and normalcy, remove poverty and socio-economic backwardness and ensure proper regional balance among the three regions - Valley, Ladakh and Jammu.

It is understood that the coalition has agreed to absorb the notorious special task force (STF) into the Jammu and Kashmir police and screening of the cases of militants charged with minor crimes, the two issues on which the two parties had serious differences. Many crimes and human rights violations are attributed to the STF.