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| Omar in Delhi | | Full cabinet swearing-in not soon | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 1: With no consensus yet between the coalition partners on a range of issues, the Chief Minister designate Omar Abdullah reached New Delhi this afternoon to join senior leaders of the National Conference, to work out the modalities of the coalition government with their Congress counterparts. The modalities include composition of the ministry, distribution of portfolios and a common minimum programme.
Omar said in New Delhi that he will be taking oath on January 5 and the next he may join the Chief Ministers’ conference on internal security being chaired by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A Deputy Chief Minister is also likely to take oath along with the Chief Minister.
Three senior NC leaders, Abdul Rahim Rather, Mian Altaf and Mohammad Shafi Uri who flew to New Delhi on Wenesday have already had the first round of the parleys with the Congress team in New Delhi on Thursday.
The formation of ministry is stalled by the major problem of the Congress not being able to zero in on a candidate for deputy chief minister's post.
Sources said that the new coalition government may be sworn in on Sunday or Monday, and in the first instance the chief minister and a deputy Chief Minister nominated by the Congress party will take the oath.
Later the full cabinet comprising of the Congress and NC ministers will be sworn in. The sources said the list of ministers was presently being finalised by the senior leaders of the two parties in Delhi.
It must be mentioned that the chief minister designate, Omar Abdullah has insisted on a deputy chief minister belonging to Jammu and to the Congress party.
Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah has vowed to give a corruption free government to the State.
"We will use all tools to stop corruption, but in this, I would speak less and do more," said Abdullah in Srinagar. Praising the larger turnout in the polls, he said his Government would have less challenges as compared to his predecessors as militancy in the State is at its minimum.
"For me, there are good conditions after 20 years from the militancy's point of view. There has been a very good performance of the voters in these elections, which also provides me with acceptability and respectability," he added.
Abdullah, who is also the President of the National Conference (NC) party, was received warmly by his supporters at the airport of Srinagar on his arrival from New Delhi.
He arrived from New Delhi after the Congress party agreed to extend its legislative support to the NC in the formation of a Government.
The England-born Abdullah was sent to Kashmir in 2002 to revive his ailing party, which had lost popularity under his father Farooq, the outgoing Chief Minister at the time.
He showed his credentials in a barnstorming speech in defence of secularism in Parliament earlier this year, when a row over the Government transfer of forest land to a Amarnath shrine in the State sparked into a communal controversy.
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