Stepping up pressure on the party high command, 21 of the 30 Congress legislators of Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday submitted their resignations to the Assembly speaker to press their demand for transfer of power in the state from the People's Democratic Party to it on November 2.
Amid day-long hectic activities, the Congress Legislative Party held an emergency meeting in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma and demanded that chief ministership be handed over to the party as per the post-poll agreement between the Congress and PDP in 2002.
The 21 MLAs -- 15 of whom contested on the Congress ticket and seven who contested as independents and subsequently joined the party -- tendered their resignations to Speaker Tara Chand in New Delhi Wednesday morning, party sources said.
Although the legislators submitted their resignations independently, all of them have conveyed to the speaker that these should be accepted automatically if Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is allowed to continue as chief minister.
As per the agreement between PDP and Congress, both the parties were to have their chief minister for three years each during the six-year term of the assembly after the 2002 elections.
The resignations and CLP meeting were accompanied by a flurry of activities, including meetings Congress president Sonia Gandhi had with senior party leaders of the state like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mangat Ram Sharma.