Azad in Delhi for talks with party bosses

New Delhi, Mar 18 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad arrived here today for talks with the central leadership of the Congress in the wake of growing strains in ruling Congress-PDP coalition in the state.

He will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her political Secretary Ahmed Patel tonight or tomorrow, party sources said.

There are reports that People's Democratic Party supremo Mufti Mohammed Sayeed would be here on Tuesday in response to a request by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the differences between the Congress and the PDP with regard to troop reduction in civilian areas, repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and eviction of army personnel from civilian properties.

The PDP ministers have stayed away from the meetings of the State Cabinet today for the third consecutive time.

The PDP had already convened a crucial meeting of its Political Affairs Committee on March 5 to take a decision on whether to continue in the 55-month-old coalition government.

The PDP ministers had boycotted the cabinet meetings on February twenty eight and March nine in the wake of "failure" to get a reply from Mr Azad to a letter written to him on the issues raised by the party.

UNI