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| NC responsible for delay in Cabinet expansion, fears rebellion from within | | | Bashir Assad
SRINAGAR, Sept 5: The much awaited Cabinet expansion in Omar Abdullah led coalition Government has hit the roadblock as National Conference leadership is in a fix, for, the number of contenders for a single vacancy from its quota, is large and the party fears rebellion from within Abdullah family in case the fire-brand uncle of Omar Abdullah and additional general secretary of the party Dr Mustafa Kamaal is not inducted in the Cabinet.
If the National Conference sources are to be believed, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is delaying the expansion in the Cabinet because of Kamaal as he is not the ideal choice for the single vacancy and that is the reason Omar is delaying the expansion even after Congress party has arrived at a decision to get back its two portfolios of Education and R&B presently lying with Chief Minister.
Sources told Early Times that Omar and his father Dr. Farooq Abdullah wanted either of the two MLAs from North Kashmir viz Mir Saifullah or Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan to be inducted in the Cabinet but Dr. Kamaal who has the backing of ailing general secretary of the Party Sheikh Nazir Ahmad and many other party functionaries and workers, is the only stumbling block.
Though the State unit of Congress party has redoubled its efforts to press for expansion in the Cabinet and get back its two portfolios held by the Chief Minister yet National Conference leadership seems to be in no hurry to take a final call on the issue, the reason being Omar Abdullah is not comfortable with Kamaal and Kamaal in turn is not ready to relinquish his claim of cabinet birth. However, delay can suite Omar but not the Congress as the party is facing more problems due to delay in Cabinet expansion. "Our R&B portfolio has not been filled for the two years, Education portfolio is also vacant for the eight months," a senior Congress leader told Early Times. According to him the party has already given its nod for re-induction of MLA Inderwal GM Saroori and restoration of Education to Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed but the National Conference was delaying the expansion cum reshuffle for being ridden with internal problems. However, the Congress leader said, they were hopeful that all these portfolios under Congress quota will be filled soon so that Congress party gets a due share. "Earlier Congress party was accused of delaying the much awaited Cabinet expansion, but in actual it is the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who is putting it on hold whenever a reshuffle is planned.
It merits a mention here that after the ouster of GM Saroori from the Council of Ministers in August 2010 and divesting Education Department portfolio from Peerzada Mohd Sayeed in February 2012, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is handling the charge of both these departments.
Since both these departments deal with common public and is often used by the political parties to consolidate their base by doling out largesse in their strong bastions, the Congress leaders especially those hailing from remote districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban are feeling neglected.
Meanwhile, the undue delay is giving sleepless nights to many Congressmen in the State as ever since Omar is handling the charge of Roads and Buildings and Education departments, they are cutting sorry fingers as majority of road construction projects in Assembly constituencies of Congress legislators are not getting adequate funds for timely completion.
In some of the cases the Congressmen alleged that National Conference leaders and local cadre get undue advantage at their cost and were consolidating their base by laying road network in their areas of strong hold.
On number of occasions Congressmen demanded Cabinet expansion to take place so that they could reclaim their portfolios but on one pretext or the other, the expansion could not be affected. |
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