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| Farooq offers CM chair to Omar then takes back | | ALL IN THE FAMILY: | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Dec 28: Jumping to early conclusions of Congress support immediately after poll results were announced, the National Conference leaders Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have announced a sudden change of leadership to head the next government.
Even as the Congress said that it was yet to discuss entering into alliance with any of the two parties for forming next government, the National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah were this evening seen as engaged in a televised debate on who among them should be the next Chief Minister.
Party, during the election campaign, had projected Dr Farooq Abdullah as the Chief Ministerial candidate. However, earlier today when election trends started coming out and significantly in favour of the National Conference, Farooq remarked at least at five times that Omar will be the next Chief Minister with support of Congress.
Later in the evening, joining a television debate, Farooq said that not Omar but he will be the Chief Minister. Interestingly, on the same channel, the Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was also on the other side, “what is the point in father and son getting into debate when Congress was yet to decide on giving support to any of the parties”.
"Why not? Omar is a young man. If he could serve better, why not?" Farooq had said earlier in the day when asked if Omar could be the choice of the the National Conference for the chief minister's post.
The former Chief Minister, who is a Rajya Sabha member, said he would like to continue in the Upper House of Parliament. "I would rather be in Parliament," he said.
Abdullah said since the state was heading for a hung Assembly, the NC would like to take a decision on chief ministership in consultation with the future coalition partner.
"The two parties will decide about the Chief Minister candidate. We have gone to the people with the promise of providing a good governance," he said. The NC patron dismissed the suggestion that the relations between him and his son Omar was not cordial by saying "father and son do not differ".
The former Chief Minister virtually thanked the militant organisations and Pakistan for the peaceful assembly elections which saw an impressive voter turnout in the state.
"Here I would like to say very frankly, we owe a lot to militant organisations which did not use the gun because in case they had used the gun, we would have been in trouble. I think Pakistan did put pressure on them that they should not do anything to affect the elections," he said.
Abdullah said every one should join hands and try to get the separatists on table to come to "some sort of agreement". He said if the separatists were not brought to the discussion, peace will not come. "We need development, peace and tourism," he added. |
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