Thaindian News

Jammu, Dec 27 (IANS) Union New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah has conveyed his anger over the repeated talk of rotating the Jammu and Kashmir chief ministership between the ruling allies, his national Conference and the Congress, party sources said Tuesday.

Farooq’s son Omar Abdullah has been the chief minister since January 2009, and a section of the Congress in the state, owing loyalty to state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz, has been pitching for change of guard.

A local media report Sunday suggested that nine Congress legislators, including five ministers, had resigned to mount pressure on the party high command to replace Omar with Soz.

The National Conference sources said that Farooq, who heads the NC, was so miffed with the report that he took up the matter with some senior Congress leaders in New Delhi and asked them that his party should be told in clear terms whether the NC-Congress alliance in Jammu and Kashmir is to continue or break mid-way.

These sources in the National Conference said that Farooq Abdullah’s response made Soz deny the report and even led to Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand issue a statement that the coalition was running smoothly and that no Congress legislator or minister had resigned.

However, sources in the Congress said the matter is far from over as some leaders would again bring up this issue.

They said they feared that if the Congress continued to play the role of “B team” in the government for next three years, it could result in electoral debacle for the party in the 2014 assembly polls.

The term of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly is of six years.