They retreated.
“I am turning into Atharva,” he muttered to himself as the door shut and his smile fell. He opened the file and a letter confronted him.
Samar pulled out his mobile and dialled Faris.
“Hello.”
“I have a job for you urgently. Find out if Qureshi has majority MLAs to overthrow Atharva.”
“What?”
Samar had never heard Faris talk back, or show shock.
“Find out. You have an hour.”
“Ok.”
Samar ended the call and pressed for Atharva.
“Yes?”
“I need you to come to the Headquarters.”
“Why?”
“Just come.”
“You come to the Secretariat, I will have to get the entire convoy.”
Qureshi would be there. If all of them convened there, he would know.
“No, you come. Don’t tell anyone why you are coming.”
“What’s going on?”
“Say that you have a closed-door meeting with me about Ladakh, if anyone that you can’t hide from asks.”
A pause. Then — “Ok.”
Samar made two more similar calls.
————————————————————
Zorji, Adil and Atharva sat in front of him, reading from a transcript of Momina Aslam’s interview where she had called Atharva a traitor. Atharva finished reading it, and Samar passed him the letter.
Atharva adjusted his glasses and frowned, reading. Samar knew the contents by heart by now. And he also knew it was confirmed.
To
The Hon’ble Governor of Jammu & Kashmir
Raj Bhavan, Srinagar
Subject: Withdrawal of Confidence in Shri Atharva Singh Kaul as Chief Minister
Date: 4th June, 2017
Hon’ble Governor,
