“One of the MLAs passed it on to me. I had to check its authenticity first. ”
“You are the party president. How was this happening under your nose?”
Samar had no answer. He was ashamed of that. He had spent too much time in Himachal and too little in Kashmir.
“Zorji?”
“How many dissenting?” Zorji asked. Atharva glanced at him, brows raised.
“At this moment,” Samar relayed. “27 from KDP. That’s more than half. Awaami will obviously support because this means their Vote of No Confidence against Atharva passes. I also have news that Janta Party might support the dissent.”
“In its entirety?” Atharva questioned.
“That’s the news I got.” Janta members did not want to sit in a sinking ship, however much Yogesh Patel supported them.
Atharva reached for his phone again and paused.
“We knew it might come to this, Atharva,” Zorji reasoned. “When we sat for that hearing, with the answers you chose to give, we knew you might have to vacate this position.”
“But that was if the SIT ruled against me. This is…” he paused.
“Qureshi hasn’t gotten signatures yet. But he has planted this letter and gotten unofficial nods. That means if you resign, this letter will never see the light of day.” Zorji laid out the coup.
“What do you think I should do?”
“Do you have the power to bring your MLAs back, Atharva?”
“We can try,” Adil asserted. “If Azad is not taking your call, let me try.”
Samar sat back as Azad picked up Adil’s call. He sat through the unyielding conversation that first Adil, then Atharva had with the MLA. And in Atharva’s inability to convince him to stand by him, Samar saw Atharva learn the cruellest lesson of life — that nobody stops when you fall. Samar had fallen so many times and seen nobody around stopped, that he did not find this shocking.
The room fell silent.
“I will resign.” Atharva declared, and surprised Samar. He was jumping into the ditch for Iram, Jammu & Kashmir and the country. Without a fight.
Samar was the first to get up and leave the room. If there was a change in leadership at the CM level, a lot had to happen at the cadre level to keep the party from falling apart. Qureshi was doing enough damage as it is with his divisive instigations. Samar did not want the MLAs and members of four different factions of KDP to start fighting.
“Samar!”
He turned.
And there she was. At the balustrade of the stairs he was about to take. There were people around them, eyes on them.
“Amaal.” Her name came out as a whisper. Her eyes, those blue, cerulean eyes were looking at him like she welcomed his face. Samar didn’t know what his expression was, although, he hoped he could school it in this public space.
“Where are you going?”
He glanced at the closed conference room door, then back at her. He stepped closer, lowering his voice — “Prepare.”
Her eyes widened. He nodded. “I will try and come to you before leaving for Himachal.”
“It’s ok, don’t push yourself. Is everything ok?” She eyed his face, his neck.
“Better.” He rasped, needing to gather her close, needing to get not a whiff but the full force of her smell of lilies. “You?”
“Swamped, but good.”
“Hmm.”
